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Boeing Awarded Contract to Build Third Wideband Gapfiller Satellite
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." Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Boeing Integrated Defense Systems Wideband Gapfiller at FAS SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Military Space News at SpaceWar.com
Space Group To Activate New Unit
Colorado Springs CO (SPX) Jan 6, 2006Air Force Reserve Command's 310th Space Group will travel deeper into the space program when it activates a new unit Jan. 7. Headquarters Reserve National Security Space Institute will be a Reserve associate unit to the National Security Space Institute in Colorado Springs, Colo. The institute is the Department of Defense's focal point for providing education about space power in joint warfighting. |
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