The U.S. Air Force on Aug. 13 awarded Raytheon Technologies [RTX] a contract worth up to $960 million for Advanced Extremely High Frequency-Terminals (AEHF-T) and support.
The work is to be completed by Aug. 9, 2031 for the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Hanscom AFB, Mass., and is to include interim contractor support, logistics support, terminal depot activation, procurement of terminal hardware and software and studies associated with the AEHF-T systems, the Air Force said.
The anti-jamming terminals are to be fitted on platforms, such as the Boeing [BA] B-52 bomber.
The U.S. Space Force operates six Lockheed Martin [LMT] AEHF satellites built to augment the U.S. military’s five Lockheed Martin Milstar satellites conceived during the Reagan administration to provide the president, secretary of defense and military forces with nuclear-survivable satellite communications with a low probability of intercept and detection.
Launched between 2010 and 2019, the AEHF constellation is to relay secure communications for the U.S. military, as well as partner nations including Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
AEHF is to offer more secure and resilient anti-jam capabilities to supplement Milstar in providing global communications to the U.S. military and government with up to 10 times more capability and five times the data transport rate,