The Space Force on Thursday awarded Boeing a $2.8 billion contract to provide secure, survivable communications for strategic missions through the service’s Evolved Strategic Satellite Communications program.
Boeing edged out Northrop Grumman for the contract, which funds two initial satellites with options for the Space Force to buy two additional satellites. The two companies have been building prototype satellites for the effort under 2020 contracts.
“The U.S. needs a strategic national security architecture that works without fail, with the highest level of protection and capability,” said Kay Sears, vice president and general manager of Boeing’s Space, Intelligence and Weapons systems business. “We designed an innovative system to provide guaranteed communication to address an evolving threat environment in space.”
Evolved Strategic SATCOM, or ESS, is a successor to the Space Force’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency constellation. The new satellites will have improved resilience and cyber capabilities.
Work on the contract is expected to be completed by 2033.
In a statement, the service said it expects to procure additional satellites as part of the broader $12 billion ESS program, including an enhanced Arctic capability.
Just before announcing the ESS contract, the Space Force revealed in a press release that it would cancel another SATCOM program called Protected Tactical SATCOM–Resilient, or PTS-R. The cancellation is part of a new SATCOM strategy that prioritizes delivering incremental capability on faster timelines. The service said the new “family of systems” approach will initially focus on faster delivery of anti-jam capabilities through the existing Protected Tactical Waveform effort.
The service didn’t flesh out the details of the strategy, but noted that the baseline capabilities for the other programs in the architecture will remain in place. That includes Protected Tactical SATCOM-Global, Protected Tactical Enterprise Service, Enterprise Management and Control and the Air Force-Army Anti-jam Modem.
The Space Force expects the new approach will reduce costs and result in “lower-risk” contracts.
Initial Protected Tactical SATCOM prototypes are slated to launch next year.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Defense Department’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.
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