Written by staff writer.
The United States Space Force has awarded Boeing an AUD674 million contract to build the 12th Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) communications satellite for the Space Force’s Space Systems Command, with the Australian Defence Force also standing to benefit from the enhanced capability.
The satellite, the twelfth in the Boeing-designed WGS constellation, ensures the US military and its allies continue to have access to high-capacity, secure, and resilient communications capabilities. A variety of defence forces, including the US Department of Defense, the Canadian Department of National Defense, and Australia’s Department of Defence, can access the satellite constellation.
The first WGS satellite went into orbit in October 2007. The most recent launch was the tenth satellite in August 2019. Boeing has been the program’s primary contractor. In 2019, the aerospace manufacturer was awarded an AUD928 million contract to build the 11th WGS satellite, currently under construction at El Segundo, California.
“Like WGS-11, the 12th WGS satellite will provide critical capabilities to our military with over 1,500 individually steerable, shapeable beams in the Ka-band, ensuring tactical forces have resilient communications,” said Michelle Parker, vice president of Space Mission Systems.
Without sovereign satellite capabilities, Australia’s ADF relies heavily on the WGS constellation for high-speed communications. The country has proportional access to the system after agreeing to spend almost AUD1 billion to fund the development of the sixth WGS satellite and associated ground infrastructure early last decade. That satellite went into orbit in August 2013.
Other international partners in the WGS program include Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and New Zealand.
Boeing says the 12th WGS satellite will provide a big boost in system performance. “The WGS’s responsive, steerable, high-capacity beams provide assured connectivity via the protected tactical enterprise Service (PTES) ground system and enhanced anti-jam communications by combining the US military’s jam-resistant protected tactical waveform with antenna nulling in the Ka-band,” Boeing’s statement reads.
“The anti-jam capability of Boeing’s new protected tactical satcom prototype payload will also be integrated on WGS-12, providing a second protected wideband satellite to the US military and expanding anti-jam tactical communications capacity for US warfighters and allies to operate in multiple contested theatres.”
Brad McMullen, Boeing’s Senior Vice President Of Sales, told this outlet at the recent Singapore Air Show that the manufacturer has a strong lineage of developing satellites, including military satellites. “The demand for space continues to grow,” he said.
Boeing’s announcement coincides with the US Space Force confirming that its electro-optical/infrared Weather Systems (EWS) CubeSat technical demonstration was successfully launched onboard SpaceX’s Transporter-10 SmallSat rideshare mission on March 4, 2024.
The one-year EWS CubeSat technical demonstration will attempt to prove-out emerging space-based electro-optical/infrared radiometric imaging technology using a smaller sensor to provide timely weather imagery data from low Earth orbit.
“If successful, this will provide an innovative option to deliver space-based environmental monitoring data that we are eager to evaluate and is critical to enabling our forces deployed around the world to plan and execute in-theater joint operations,” said EWS program manager Lt. Col. Joe Maguadog.
