THE SENTINEL, The MUOS at Niscemi: Environment, Society and High Frequency Electromagnetic Fields

The satellite communication system MUOS (Mobile User Objective System) is a system of satellite telecommunications of the US Navy. The ground system consists of four stations, which are located: in Virginia (US), Hawaii (US), Australia and Niscemi (Italy). They are very high frequency systems (UHF, Ultra - ellites. Each ground station is composed of three large satellite dishes with a diameter of 18.4 meters, which transmit in the Ka band and two helical antennas, high 149 meters, in the UHF band. The Italian station Muos is located in Sicily, in Niscemi, in the NRTF-8 (Naval Radio Trasmitter Facility) American military base which falls in a natural . The latter is one of the few natural parks of Cork trees (“Sughereta”, in Italian) now remained in Italy, protected by laws that prohibit any human intervention - nent of the Natura 2000 European network, Bioregion of the Mediterranean. - tices of cultivation, agricultural, forestry and pastoral, when are not in con- the construction of infrastructures, network systems, pylons, antennas for telecommunications, new buildings and the opening of roads and trails. In clear violation of these rules, much of a hill has been cleared and leveled to create the surface where is the Muos station. Due to their size, the three satellite dishes of Muos and the two radio towers, high even 149 meters, and that “light up” a quarter of the planet – their operative radius covers a quarter of the entire planet – can result in serious consequences for people and environment if any malfunction or accident should happen. In addition, this station would be one of the main objectives of military powers (or terrorists) adverse to the US, as the Muos is the key tool for the military communications of the United States on the world stage.