Reference News Network, July 5 - According to the U.S. "Defense News" weekly website on July 4, the U.S. Space Force awarded Boeing a $2.8 billion contract on July 3 to establish the Enhanced Strategic Satellite Communications program (ESS) for strategic missions, providing secure and survivable communication services.

Boeing beat Northrop Grumman to win the contract, which will fund two initial satellites and give the Space Force the option to purchase two more satellites. Both companies have been building prototype satellites for this work under a 2020 contract.

Kay Sears, vice president and general manager of Boeing's space, intelligence, and weapons systems business, said: "The United States needs an impregnable strategic national security architecture with the highest level of protection and capability. We have designed an innovative system that provides assured communication services to counter evolving threats in the space environment."

ESS is the successor to the Space Force's Advanced Extremely High Frequency Communication System. The new satellites will have better resilience and networking capabilities.

The contract work is expected to be completed by 2033.

The U.S. Space Force said in a statement that it plans to procure more satellites as part of a broader $12 billion ESS program, including enhanced capabilities in the Arctic region.

Just before announcing the ESS contract, the Space Force revealed in a press release that it would cancel another satellite communications project called "Protected Tactical Satellite Communications - Resilient" (PTS-R). Canceling this project is part of a new satellite communications strategy that prioritizes delivering incremental capabilities more quickly. The Space Force stated that the new "family of systems" will initially focus on providing anti-jamming capabilities faster through existing protected tactical waveforms.

The Space Force did not elaborate on the details of this strategy but noted that baseline capabilities of other projects in the architecture will remain unchanged. This includes "Protected Tactical Satellite Communications - Global" (PTS-G), Protected Tactical Enterprise Services, enterprise management and control, and Air Force-Army anti-jamming modems.

The Space Force expects the new approach to reduce costs and produce "lower risk" contracts.

The initial protected tactical satellite communication prototype is scheduled to launch next year. (Translated by Wang Qun)

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7523486652259222058/

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