The Boeing Space
and Communications Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals
(FAB-T) team has delivered a proposal to the U.S. Air Force for a
multimillion-dollar contract to design and develop wideband satellite
communications terminals that will provide the military with critical
protected communications.

FAB-T is a Department of Defense (DoD) initiative to provide a
multi-mission capable family of terminals that will utilize a common
design, open system architecture to talk to different satellites.
Terminals — or radio systems with special purpose antennas — enable
information exchange between ground, airborne and space platforms.

Boeing Space and Communications (S&C), a unit of The Boeing Co., is leading one of two industry teams competing for a
six-year, $279 million system design and development contract, which
will be managed by the MILSATCOM Terminals Office at Electronic
Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.

To meet the requirements set forth in the solicitation, Boeing has
engaged in a broad architecture development activity, partnering with
the nation’s leading satellite systems, communications terminals and
high performance data link system providers to provide a flexible,
open architecture that can accommodate terminal upgrades and meet
emerging technology requirements of the DoD.

Principal team members include Harris Corp.’s Government
Communications Systems division of Melbourne, Fla.; L-3
Communications’ Communications Systems West division of Salt Lake
City; TRW Inc.’s Command, Control and Intelligence Division of
Fairfax, Va.; and ViaSat Inc.’s Communications Systems Group of
Carlsbad, Calif.

Program activity will be managed by Boeing’s BMC3 & Strategic
Systems business segment in Anaheim, Calif., with key support from
Boeing Satellite Systems of El Segundo, Calif.

“Boeing has brought together the best that industry has to offer
to provide a systems solution that will dramatically improve satellite
communications for the strategic forces,” said Allen Ashby, vice
president and general manager of BMC3 & Strategic Systems.

“The Boeing team supports DoD space transformation objectives
and acknowledges FAB-T as a key building block of the integrated
battlespace architecture. We are committed to making the FAB-T
initiative a success.”

The proposal submitted by the Boeing team represents the first
increment of the multi-phase program, where the winning team will have
sole responsibility for a six-year period of performance upon award in
late June. The initial design period will be followed by the low-rate
initial production phase scheduled to start in 2007 and the production
phase scheduled to start in 2008. The system is expected to be fully
operational by 2009.

Once operational, FAB-T will provide critical, protected beyond
line-of-sight communications capability for warfighters via the new
Advanced Extremely High Frequency (Advanced EHF) System, a new class
of secure satellites that support military forces. In subsequent
increments, FAB-T will enable interchange with other national
satellite communications systems such as Wideband Gapfiller and Global
Broadcast.

Boeing S&C, with headquarters in Seal Beach, is the world’s
largest space and communications company. S&C provides integrated
solutions in launch services, human space flight and exploration,
missile defense, and information and communications.

It is NASA’s largest contractor; a leading provider of space-based
communications; the primary systems integrator for U.S. missile
defense; and a leading provider of intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance. The global enterprise has customers worldwide and
manufacturing operations throughout the United States and Australia.