Canada in early May became the first Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) international partner to communicate using the Lockheed Martin– [LMT] produced protected communication satellite system, according to a company statement.
A United States-Canada team successfully communicated with the first AEHF satellite (AEHF-1) using a variant of the Secure Mobile Anti-Jam Reliable Tactical-Terminal (SMART-T) from a location near Ottawa, Canada. Lockheed Martin spokesman Mark Lewis said Thursday the terminal variant, known as the “International Partner Variant SMART-T,” gives access to the extended data rate (XDR) waveform used by international partners. Lewis said the United States also uses XDR, but is not limited to it because AEHF handles other U.S.-only waveforms for its communications needs. SMART-T is developed by Raytheon [RTN].
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| Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite. Photo: Lockheed Martin. |
Team members were able to exchange data with the U.S. Air Force’s 4th Space Operations Squadron located At Schriever AFB, Colo. The United States supported Canadian forces in later exercises as they tested multiple Navy Multi-Band internet protocol (IP) variant terminals to exchange data over AEHF networks.
Canada will continue testing for several months as it moves toward initial operational capability (IOC). The Netherlands and the United Kingdom are the other AEHF international partners and each nation is scheduled to complete their first terminal connections by the end of the year.
Northrop Grumman [NOC] said last week it recently delivered the first of approximately 20 electronics units for the AEHF-4 satellite payload, allowing the integration and test phase of production to begin. Delivery of the uplink phased array high-efficiency converter (UHEC) means that testing of the uplink phased array subsystem can begin later this year. Northrop Grumman is the AEHF satellite payload provider. Lockheed Martin delivered the AEHF-4 system module to Northrop Grumman for payload integration last November (Defense Daily, Nov. 28).
Lockheed Martin is under contract to deliver six AEHF satellites and the Mission Control Segment. Both AEHF-1 and AEHF-2 are on orbit with AEHF-3 scheduled for a late September launch. Lewis said AEHF-4 is scheduled to launch in third quarter 2016, earlier than a previous reported estimate of early 2017.
The AEHF system provides improved global, survivable, highly secure and protected communications capabilities for strategic command and tactical warfighters operating on ground, sea and air platforms. A single AEHF satellite provides greater total capacity than the entire legacy five-satellite Milstar constellation.
The Air Force in December awarded Lockheed Martin a $1.9 billion contract to build AEHF-5 and AEHF-6 (Defense Daily, Jan. 3).