The US Marine Corps has acquired the MONAX tactical Smartphone network developed by Lockheed Martin to support their humanitarian assistance and disaster relief mission exercises, according to a company statement issued 8 November 2011.
According to Lockheed Martin, the Marine Corps Forces Pacific Experimentation Center has acquired the MONAX system, which the Office of Naval Research purchased. MONAX is a portable private 4G network that provides voice, data and video services through commercial Smartphone technologies.
The secure broadband network system can be used anywhere. It is designed to ‘connect off-the-shelf Smartphones to a cellular base station infrastructure, enabling users to securely send and receive data rich information to its users. 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.’