spacetoday.net: Boeing, Lockheed win military satcom study contracts

Posted: Sat, Jan 24, 2004, 9:29 AM ET (1429 GMT)
The US Air Force awarded contracts Thursday worth nearly half a billion dollars each to Boeing and Lockheed Martin to develop designs for a next-generation military satellite communications system. Each company won a $472-million contract that runs through March 2006 for study of a "transformational communications", or T-Sat, military satellite communications system. Such a system, scheduled for introduction in 2012, would likely feature laser communications links from the ground to the satellites. The study contracts are designed to work on reducing the technological risk of proposed aspects of the system, including the laser links. At the end of the study phase the Pentagon plans to select one of the companies to build the satellites, at an estimated cost of $6 billion. Space News reported, though, that the military could opt to extend the study contracts another nine months if additional work was needed.