Northrop Grumman Receives Air Force Contracts

Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center will work together to develop more affordable protected military satellite communications systems, the company announced Thursday in a news release.

The three 10-month, fixed-priced contracts were received Sept. 28 under the Protected Military Satellite Communication Design for Affordability Risk Reduction initiative, the company said.

"Only today's protected satellite communications ensure connectivity that's highly resistant to interference and detection in a growing threat environment that includes many different types of physical, electronic and cyber threats," Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems Vice President of Communication Systems Stuart Linsky said. "By leveraging the government's investment in these protected communication technologies, tomorrow's tactical, protected satellite communications will be able to provide these capabilities at no more cost than unprotected military satellite communications.

"This will revolutionize our national networks, connecting platforms to warfighters and decision makers during diplomacy through enforcement."

As part of the projects, Northrop Grumman will develop an unclassified waveform specification and demonstrate its feasibility; design and demonstrate a space/ground modem; and demonstrate "gateway affordability by using commercial off-the-shelf components."