Lockheed Martin has achieved another major milestone in the development of the Advanced Extremely High Frequency military communications system with the successful delivery of the core propulsion module for the second satellite in the program constellation. The successful delivery allows the team of Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Sunnyvale, Calif., the AEHF prime contractor, and Northrop Grumman Space Technology, Redondo Beach, Calif., the payload supplier, to prepare for the spacecraft and payload mate planned for mid-2008, followed by environmental and acceptance testing of the completed satellite in preparation for launch in 2009.

    The AEHF system will provide global, highly secure, protected, survivable communications for all warfighters serving under the U.S. Department of Defense. The AEHF propulsion system, which includes an electric propulsion system provided by Aerojet of Sacramento, Calif., is essential for maneuvering the satellite during transfer orbit to its final location as well as conducting on-orbit repositioning maneuvers throughout its mission life.

    Developed and tested at Lockheed Martin's Mississippi Space & Technology Center, an advanced propulsion, thermal, and metrology facility located at the John C. Stennis Space Center, the core propulsion module contains the integrated propulsion system as well as panels and other components that serve as the structural foundation of the satellite. The higher data rates permit transmission of secure, tactical military communications such as real-time video, battlefield maps and targeting data.

    The integrated system was delivered ahead of schedule to the company's facilities in Sunnyvale, Calif. Based on Lockheed Martin's flight-proven A2100 spacecraft series, each AEHF satellite will provide greater total capacity than the entire Milstar constellation and offer channel data rates higher than the current Milstar communications satellites.

    "The smooth development and early delivery of this sophisticated hardware is the result of our relentless focus on achieving operational excellence and mission success for our customer. We look forward to our continued positive momentum as we begin the final assembly, integration and test of this second AEHF satellite next year," stated Jeff Smith, Lockheed Martin's AEHF vice president and program manager.

    Lockheed Martin is currently under contract to provide three Advanced EHF satellites and the command control system to its customer, the Military Satellite Communications Systems Wing, located at the Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif. Key design features include: high capacity communications, assured access to assigned resources, anti-jamming, anti-scintillation, inter-satellite crosslinks, Encryption of communication, terminal authentication, resources configurable directly by the user “on the fly”, wide range of user data rate available (75 bps up to 8 Mbps) and a wide Range of services available (point-to-point calls, voice and video conference networks (half and full duplex), data inter-connectivity).