Nichols Martin
Lockheed Martin has transported a military communications satellite to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to begin preparations for a scheduled October launch aboard the United Launch Alliance‘s Atlas V rocket.
The company said Monday it built and tested the fourth Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite in Sunnyvale, Calif., before delivering the system to the launch site.
The U.S. Air Force tapped Lockheed to build six satellites for the AEHF program under a potential $9.2 billion contract.
AEHF satellites are designed to facilitate transmission of videos, targeting data and battlefield maps among U.S. armed forces and allies who conduct operations on the ground, at sea or in the air.
The system works to secure communications against jamming and seeks to minimize the risk of detection or interception.
Lockheed was awarded a $32.1 million contract modification last week to implement the operational resiliency phase of the fourth AEHF satellite vehicle.
