Whoa, this is cool. Raytheon and XM Satellite Radio are teaming up to demonstrate how satellite radio can provide customized alerts to military troops as part of the Defense Department’s Joint Blue Force Situational Awareness (JBFSA) program.

Dubbed “Mobile Enhanced Situational Awareness” or MESA, the effort is a joint program between Raytheon, XM Satellite Radio and worldwide satellite radio provider Worldspace, which has coverage over Africa, Europe and parts of Asia.

The idea is to setup tailored missile warning alerts to specific geographical regions, as opposed to broadcasting to everyone (causing confusion, pandemonium and general mayhem amongst troops… not fun). With XM, they’ll be able to send the warning messages to specific selections of troops on the ground. The MESA receivers will decrypt the message for the users that are intended to hear it, using pretty much existing communications hardware (camo MyFi skins anyone?).

As the technology gets better Raytheon sees lapel-sized receivers being worn by individual soldiers. No doubt any technology developed for military use can then be in turn used for civilian use… with the appropriate limitations of course.