What Northrop Grumman and Boeing will do for the US Space Force
Boeing and Northrop enter the next phase of the United States Space Force's Protected Tactical Satcom program
The US Space Force has selected Boeing and Northrop Grumman to design, develop and launch payloads intended to protect military satellite communications as part of the new phase of the Protected Tactical Satcom (PTS) program.
SpaceNews first reported this on April 22.
A flight demonstration of Northrop and Boeing's PTS payload is expected in 2024 aboard a commercial or military satellite.
This will evaluate the PTS prototypes as potential platforms for next-generation satellites that could replace advanced ultra-high frequency satellites and other existing systems for classified communications.
In early 2020, the Space and Missile Systems Center awarded Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman contracts worth $ 191 million, $ 240 million, and $ 253 million, respectively, to design payload prototypes for the PTS program.
But Lockheed Martin did not move on to this next stage.
All the details.
WHAT BOEING AND NORTHROP GRUMMAN WILL DO
The Space and Missile Systems Center said each company's design was "deliberately evaluated in terms of payload performance, extensibility to full production, modularity, stability, cost, planning and risk."
Payloads from Boeing and Northrop Grumman will be launched into space in 2024 on a military or commercial satellite for an in-orbit demonstration.
OUT LOCKHEED MARTIN
Only Boeing and Northrop Grumman have thus obtained the pass to the next phase of the program.
NEXT GENERATION SAFE COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITES
The PTS prototypes will be evaluated by the Space Force as possible solutions for next-generation secure communication satellites that from 2030 could complement or replace existing systems, including the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellites used by the Pentagon for level communications classified..
“These new communication systems will have to be able to offer the US Armed Forces significantly improved anti-jam performance compared to those in use today,” Ares Difesa underlined.
WAITING FOR THE OPEN COMPETITION FOR THE NEXT PHASE OF THE PTS
Finally, the Space and Missile Systems Center stated that an "open and complete competition" is planned for the next phase of the PTS, the details of which have not yet been decided.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/cosa-faranno-northrop-grumman-e-boeing-per-la-us-space-force/ on Tue, 27 Apr 2021 04:16:18 +0000.