LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE, El Segundo, Calif. – The Air Force’s second Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite is scheduled to launch May 3 aboard an Atlas V launch vehicle, from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
The Atlas V carrying AEHF-2 rolled out from the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at 10:00 a.m. EDT, May 2. Rollout to the launch pad concludes 70 days of successful joint processing by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company and United Launch Alliance.
AEHF is a joint service satellite communications system that will provide survivable, global, secure, protected, and jam-resistant communications for high-priority military ground, sea and air assets. The AEHF system is the follow-on to the Milstar system, augmenting, improving and expanding the Department of Defense’s MILSATCOM architecture.
AEHF-2 was procured from Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company by the MILSATCOM Systems Directorate, part of the Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile Systems Center. The MILSATCOM Systems Directorate plans, acquires and sustains space-based global communications in support of the president, secretary of defense and combat forces. The MILSATCOM enterprise consists of satellites, terminals and control stations and provides communications for more than 16,000 air, land and sea platforms.
