The U.S. Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin Space Systems and TRW Space & Electronics a contract for up to $2.698 billion to begin the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase of Advanced Extremely High Frequency (Advanced EHF) Program. The Advanced EHF Program is the next generation of global, highly secure, survivable communications system for Warfighters within all services of the Department of Defense. The SDD phase will deploy two Advanced EHF satellites and the Advanced EHF Mission Control Segment.

Artist's concept of an Advanced EHF satellite in orbit. Photo: Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin is the Advanced EHF system prime contractor and will be providing the spacecraft bus and Mission Control Segment. TRW will be the payload integrator and will develop the payload processors, nulling antennas, the crosslink, RF antenna equipment, and up-link phased array.

"Lockheed Martin is proud to be leading the development of the Advanced EHF system," said Jeff Harris, president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Missiles & Space Operations. "Working closely with our customer, we have defined a system that effectively leverages our communications satellite experience, and available technology, with the customer's critical communications needs. The result of this effort will be an Advanced EHF system that delivers the coverage, capacity, connectivity and flexibility needed to provide unprecedented levels of assured communications interoperability for our Armed Forces."

Advanced EHF satellites will provide greater total capacity and offer channel data rates higher than that of Milstar communications satellites. The higher data rates permit transmission of tactical military communications such as real-time video, battlefield maps and targeting data. The Mission Control Segment will consolidate Milstar and Advanced EHF Satellite control and communication resource planning into a single, modernized Mission Control System.

To accomplish this, Advanced EHF adds new higher data rate modes to the low data rate and medium data rate modes of Milstar satellites. The higher data rate modes will provide data rates up to 8.2 million bits of data per second (Mbps) to Advanced EHF terminals. That rate is 150 times faster than the modems of today's personal computers. Each Advanced EHF satellite employs more than 50 communications channels via multiple, simultaneous downlinks. For global communications, the Advanced EHF system uses inter-satellite crosslinks, eliminating the need to route messages via terrestrial systems.

"TRW is combining its extensive experience developing military and commercial digital switching communications payloads with the innovative design and production techniques to build and integrate the Advanced EHF payload," said Tim Hannemann, president and chief executive officer, TRW Space & Electronics. "We're eager to start on the manufacturing phase of this program. We will provide a capable, affordable and robust system for the Warfighter."

The Advanced EHF constellation will provide secure data throughput capability and coverage flexibility to regional and global military operations and will also be backward compatible with the Milstar system. The first of the Advanced EHF satellites will launch in 2006.

The Advanced EHF system is the follow-on to the DoD's Milstar highly secure communication satellite program. The Milstar Program currently has a three-satellite constellation in orbit. A Milstar 2 satellite was recently shipped to Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., where it will be readied for a Jan. 2002 launch aboard a Titan 4/Centaur launch vehicle. The last Milstar satellite is planned for launch in 2002.

TRW Space & Electronics is an operating unit of TRW Inc., which provides advanced technology products and services for the aerospace, telecommunications, automotive and information technology markets worldwide.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, headquartered in Denver, Colo., is one of the major operating units of Lockheed Martin Corporation. Space Systems designs, develops, tests, manufactures and operates a variety of advanced technology systems for military, civil and commercial customers. Chief products include space launch and ground systems, remote sensing and communications satellites for commercial and government customers, advanced space observatories and interplanetary spacecraft, fleet ballistic missiles and missile defense systems.