A $336.4 million contract for Boeing Satellite Systems to produce and launch two high-capacity communication satellites was signed Jan. 31 here.
Phillip Sanchez, WGS contracting officer at MILSATCOM Joint Program Office, also awarded a contract action that purchases long lead parts for a third satellite. The overall contract is valued at $1.3 billion.
The contract was part of the Wideband Gapfiller Satellite Program, intended to fill the gap in service between the currently operational Defense Satellite Communications System and the future Advanced Wideband System, with commercially acquired communication satellites and associated control units.
The Boeing WGS design leverages advanced commercially developed satellite communications technology including phased-array antennas and a highly flexible digital channelization system to route communications links anywhere in the satellite’s field of view. The WGS advanced technology will offer significant improvements in capacity, connectivity, coverage and control from the Department of Defense to the warfighter in the field.
By providing more bandwidth to the battlefield, the warfighter’s ‘digitized battlefield’ is one more step closer to reality, program officials said.
The first launch is scheduled for 2004.
