The Air Force gave The Boeing Co. [BA] a $75 million contract extension to continue risk reduction and system definition for the Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT), making a total so far of $739 million.
The six-month contract extension began Jan. 7.
TSAT will provide survivable, protected, high-capacity and Internet-like connectivity via satellite for airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; communications on the move; and protected strategic communications.
Boeing used on-orbit technology produced for a commercial communications satellite services customer to demonstrate low-risk, flight-proven solutions for TSAT. That demonstrated maturity of the space-based packet-switching technology. Boeing also built a single software program that will allow all TSAT space and ground systems to work together, eliminating the need for multiple software programs to run different operations.
Other companies on the Boeing team include Cisco, Hughes, IBM [IBM], Harris Corp., Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., LGS Innovations, Raytheon Co. [RTN], General Dynamics Corp. [GD] C4 Systems, L-3 Communications, BBN Technologies, EMS Technologies, SAIC [SAI] and Innovative Communications Engineering (ICE).