Lockheed Martin wins second Air Force communications deal

In less than a week, defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. has captured two huge deals for satellite communications from the Air Force.

On Friday, Jan. 24, Lockheed Martin won a $2.1 billion contract to support the Air Force's Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT) Mission Operations System. The TSAT program is intended to create a network system that connects the Pentagon's earth-based global information grid to Defense Department users around the world.

Today, the Bethesda, Md., company won a $491 million contract from the Air Force to build a third spacecraft for the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite system.

The Advanced Extremely High Frequency system, which succeeds the Milstar communication satellite system, offers greater total capacity and channel data rates higher than Milstar. With the higher data rates, the military can transmit tactical communications such as real-time video, battlefield maps and targeting data.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Sunnyvale, Calif., is the prime contractor for the new satellite program. The division will deliver a militarized version of its flight-proven A2100 spacecraft bus and the mission control segment. This will consolidate Milstar and the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite control and communication planning into a single, modernized mission control system.

These advanced satellites provide highly secure, global communications for all warfighters serving under the Defense Department.

Lockheed Martin has about 135,000 employees and had annual revenue of $37.2 billion in fiscal 2005. The company ranks No. 1 on Washington Technology's 2005 Top 100 list of federal prime contractors.