The Air Force and its contractors on the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite constellation are performing so well the service wants to launch the fourth space vehicle early, according to a key officer.
Air Force Col. Stephen Purdy, chief of the protected satellite communications (SATCOM) division of the Space and Missile Systems Center (AFSMC), said Tuesday the service is about four to five months ahead of schedule on AEHF-4, so it’s targeting December 2016 for launch. Purdy said prime contractor Lockheed Martin [LMT] and major subcontractor Northrop Grumman [NOC] figured out how to overcome a large production gap between space vehicles three and four. Purdy didn’t elaborate on how the two companies were able to get AEHF-4 ahead of schedule and the Air Force didn’t return a request for comment by press time.
Lockheed Martin owns the satellite bus for AEHF while Northrop Grumman owns the satellite payload, Purdy said. 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 composed of three segments: space (the satellites), ground (mission control and associated communications links) and terminals (the users).
Purdy said the Air Force prefers to launch AEHF-4 early as opposed to storing the satellite because storage costs “lots of money.” Purdy said this includes not only storage costs but life extension upgrades that would be necessary if the satellite was stored for too long. Purdy said the service is notionally planning for AEHF-5 to launch in June 2018 and AEHF-6, the final satellite, in February 2019.
The Air Force declared initial operational capability (IOC) for AEHF on July 28 with three satellites in orbit. Purdy said IOC means the service will be able to “fully open the spigot” of capability, allowing increased flexibility and better balancing capability across the AEHF system and its legacy Milstar communication satellite constellation. Purdy said as AEHF was previously under testing, operators had limited access to the system with “constrained bandwidth.”
Not only is the service ahead of schedule for AEHF-4, but it was early in its timeframe for declaring IOC. Purdy said the Air Force had slotted IOC for between June and December of 2015. The program, he said, overcame a ground software delays back in the Increment 5 software era that pushed back the program about 18-to-24 months and delayed IOC. Purdy said the program made up ground by launching AEHF-3 while concurrently fixing those ground software issues. AEHF-3 launched Sept. 18, 2013.
Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are partner nations on AEHF. Purdy said Canada and the Netherlands have already declared IOC on AEHF and he believes the U.K. will declare IOC in the next year.