BALTIMORE, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. Marine Corps will soon use a tactical smartphone network developed to support humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercises.
The Marine Corps Forces Pacific Experimentation Center has acquired Lockheed Martin's MONAX system, which the Office of Naval Research purchased. It is a portable, private 4G network that provides voice, data and video services through commercial Smartphone technologies.
"We are proud to help the Marine Corps support this critical mission," said Sam Guthrie, MONAX program director for Lockheed Martin IS&GS-Defense. "MONAX is a unique offering that provides an affordable, portable network for a wide range of military, civil and humanitarian missions."
MONAX provides users with a 4G private network they can operate anywhere. This secure broadband network system connects off-the-shelf smartphones to a cellular base station infrastructure, enabling users to securely send and receive data, By using a secure RF Link, communications are protected through strong exportable encryption enabling the transfer of pertinent and sensitive information.
MONAX can connect hundreds of users to a single base station, which is more than normal commercial carrier limits of approximately 40 per sector.
