The PDR demonstrated that the Advanced EHF design meets or exceeds the customer's requirements for the next generation highly secure military satellite system, which will employ the world's most complex and sophisticated communication satellites.

"The thoroughness of the revamped system design and system level requirements were clear indicators of the close coupling between the government and National Team members," said Lt. Col. Steven Lauder, Advanced EHF program manager for the Joint Program Office. "The joint warfighters will be able to expect vast improvement in capabilities from the Advance EHF system. I am impressed by the progress of the National Team and I congratulate them for a job well done!"

More than 400 people from the Air Force, Army, Navy, Department of Defense agencies, as well as industry teammates TRW and Boeing and other system engineering and technical assistance support contractors, participated in the three-day review held recently at Lockheed Martin's Sunnyvale facility. The PDR validated that the Advanced EHF architecture supports the Air Force concept of operations and provides backward compatibility with Milstar ground and space assets.

The review of the system verified that the design would satisfy global and worldwide continuous coverage at ten times the capacity of the heritage Milstar system. It will provide electronic jamming protection for military forces and the ability to support joint communications among all military EHF terminals.

"We are extremely pleased to have successfully completed this significant milestone in the Advanced EHF program," said Manny Dimiceli, Lockheed Martin's Advanced EHF program manager. "Working hand-in-hand with our Air Force customer, the PDR team has brought together extensive experience, talent, and determination to develop what will be the most complex, sophisticated military communications satellite system ever produced."

Now that the system PDR has been successfully completed, the team has quickly turned its focus to the execution of the ground and satellite segment PDRs, which will be conducted through mid-September. As the design matures, the team will conduct additional lower level element and component reviews, before the system level critical design review in July 2003, prior to production start.

"There are tough challenges ahead of us as we aim for near-term production approval for the Advanced EHF satellite and ground segment," added Lt. Col. Lauder. "We're all looking forward to getting our current acquisition challenges behind us and focusing on 'putting rubber on the ramp' with Advanced EHF."

Last year, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, TRW Space and Electronics, and Boeing Satellite Systems formed a National Team to develop the Advanced EHF system, the follow-on to the DoD's Milstar highly secure communication satellite program. The same team of contractors has successfully teamed on the Milstar Program, which currently has a three-satellite constellation in orbit. The last Milstar satellite is planned for launch in 2002.

The fully operational Advanced EHF constellation will consist of four cross-linked satellites providing Earth coverage. These satellites will provide secure data throughput capability and coverage flexibility to regional and global military operations and will also be backward compatible with the Milstar system. The first of the four satellites is scheduled for launch in December 2005.

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