Boeing Awarded Contract to Build Third Wideband Gapfiller Satellite

stretching out to help fill the gaps

St Louis - Jan 06, 2003
Boeing Integrated Defense Systems has been awarded a U.S. Air Force contract option to build a third satellite in the Wideband Gapfiller Satellite, or WGS, program.

Each WGS satellite provides the United States and its allies with increased space-based communications capability that augments current Defense Satellite Communications System, or DSCS, and Global Broadcast Service operations.

The WGS is a key military satellite communications, or MILSATCOM, program being weaved into a Boeing integrated battlespace where real-time information is quickly and simultaneously made accessible to platforms, forces and commanders on the ground, at sea and in the air.

"Boeing is honored and very excited to have the opportunity to provide a third WGS satellite for the Air Force," said Randy Brinkley, president of Boeing Satellite Systems, the satellite-manufacturing arm of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems.

"The WGS satellites will provide an enormous leap forward in satellite communications capability for the U.S. and allied forces, beginning with the first launch in mid-2004."

Boeing received funding to build the first two satellites in January 2002 for launches scheduled in 2004. The third satellite is scheduled to launch in 2005. The WGS contract includes options for as many as six Boeing 702 satellites and associated spacecraft and payload ground control equipment that is jointly funded with the U.S. Army. With the current option for the WGS F3 satellite, the total value of the contract is now approximately $660 million.

More than 1,000 people at Boeing's integrated satellite factory in El Segundo, Calif, anchor the Boeing team building the WGS. Additional Boeing resources from around the country and many key suppliers, including Spectrolab in Sylmar, Calif.; ITT in Colorado Springs, Colo.; Raytheon in Aurora, Colo.; Northrop Grumman Information Technology in San Pedro, Calif.; and Harris in Palm Bay, Fla., also support the program.

"The Boeing 702-based WGS is an exceptional platform that can evolve, with significant added capabilities, to cost-effectively provide military users with near-term transformational communications capabilities," said Richard H. Johnson, WGS program director at Boeing.

"These enhancements would satisfy the rapidly changing needs of the military's communications architectures, including providing additional connectivity for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance from unmanned vehicles."

SPACEWAR

ITT To Equip US Army With Ka-Band Terminals and Support

White Plains - Aug 01, 2002
ITT Industries has been awarded a $113 million contract to provide Wideband Gapfiller Ka-band satellite earth terminals and support to the US Army's Project Manager Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems (PM DCATS). The base contract of $17 million includes options that bring the contract total to more than $113 million. Contract work will be performed by ITT's Systems Division, located in Colorado Springs, CO.

Boeing Team Submits Proposal For SatCom Needs Of Strategic Forces

Seal Beach - May 8, 2002
Boeing Space and Communications has delivered a proposal to the U.S. Air Force for a multimillion-dollar contract to design and develop wideband satellite communications terminals that will provide the military with critical protected communications.