Boeing [BA] earlier this year awarded Britain’s Cobham plc a $65 million contract to supply electronic systems to Boeing’s Wideband Global Satellite (WGS) Communications program, according to a Cobham statement.
The contract funds production on three WGS flight sets with additional options for three more sets, the statement said. Cobham North America spokeswoman Monica Hallman said recently in an email each flight set consists of over 1,000 RF Modules supporting uplink and downlink communications. The modules are made up of a complex power amplifier and beamformer that receive amplifier modules. These allow the satellite to transmit and receive communications.
Hallman said the contract contains Boeing options for three additional satellites’ worth of hardware. Hallman also said the $65 million award consists of three independent contracts awarded in the third quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012.
Production of the components began this year and is expected to finish in 2013, according to a Cobham statement. The work will take place at Cobham’s Lowell, Mass., facility.
WGS is to provide broadband communications connectivity for the United States and its allies, including tactical communications for ground forces and relaying data and imagery from airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms. WGS is the Defense Department’s highest-capacity communications satellite system and can process more than 3.6 gigabits per second of data.