The U.S. Air Force’s 4th Space Operations Squadron at Schriever Air Force Base is now “talking” with the fifth Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF-5) protected communication satellite after its successful launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, this morning, Bethesda, MD-based Lockheed Martin announced August 8.
The Lockheed Martin-built AEHF-5 satellite is now responding to the squadron’s commands as planned. The squadron began “flying” the satellite shortly after it separated from its United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket approximately 5 hours and 40 minutes after the rocket’s successful 6:13 a.m. ET liftoff.
AEHF-5 complete a
geostationary ring of five satellites delivering global coverage for
survivable, highly secure and protected communications for
strategic command and tactical warfighters operating on ground, sea and air
platforms. Besides U.S. forces, AEHF also serves international partners
including Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
“This fifth
satellite adds an additional layer of flexibility for critical strategic and
tactical protected communications serving the warfighter. This added resilience
to the existing constellation will help ensure warfighters can connect globally
to communicate and transmit data at all times,” said Mike Cacheiro,
vice president for Protected Communications at Lockheed Martin
Space. “In the weeks ahead, AEHF-5 will move towards its operational
orbit, deploy all of its solar arrays and antennas, and turn on its powerful
communications payload for a rigorous testing phase prior to hand over to the
Air Force.”
AEHF-5, with its advanced Extended Data Rate (XDR) waveform technology, adds to the constellation’s high-bandwidth network. One AEHF satellite provides greater total capacity than the entire legacy five-satellite Milstar communications constellation.
“Individual
data rates increase five-fold compared to Milstar, permitting transmission of
tactical military communications, such as real-time video, battlefield maps and
targeting data,” said Cacheiro. “AEHF affords national leaders
anti-jam, always-on connectivity during all levels of conflict and enables
both strategic and tactical users to communicate globally across a high-speed
network that delivers protected communications in any environment.”
Lockheed Martin
designed, processed and manufactured all five on-orbit AEHF satellites at its
advanced satellite manufacturing facility in Sunnyvale, California. The
next AEHF satellite, AEHF-6, is currently in full production in Silicon Valley
and is expected to launch in 2020.
The AEHF team includes the U.S. Air Force Military Satellite Communications Systems Directorate at the Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif. Lockheed Martin Space, Sunnyvale, Calif., is the AEHF prime contractor, space and ground segments provider as well as system integrator, with Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, Redondo Beach, Calif., as the payload provider.
Source: Lockheed Martin
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