Anna Forrester
The Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and TeleCommunication Systems industry team is near hardware and software production for the Low Cost Terminal program after completing the critical design review on the terminal’s information assurance element.
Northrop said Wednesday the review focused on the terminal’s protected communications function and used a payload engineering model of the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite to test interoperability.
Tim Frei, vice president for communication systems at Northrop Grumman’s aerospace systems business, said LCT works to support secure connectivity for tactical users in contested and area denial environments.
The team plans to move forward to testing LCT with an AEHF satellite by the end of the year and secure full certification by 2016, Northrop added.
The company also noted that the use of existing commercial designs and technologies works to limit costs in manufacturing the terminal.
