The collapse of the US Air Force's KC-X tanker competition has had an impact on the service's transformational satellite communications system (TSAT), with its $15 billion space segment contract award now delayed to the end of the year.
Described as the "fourth generation of protected satellite communications", TSAT promises 4Gb/sec telecommunications capability for the US armed services, its planned deployment start date of 2016 would have required a contract signature during September.
The new system's bandwidth is an order of magnitude larger than the US military's existing constellation of Milstar I and II satellites, capable of 1.5Mb/sec, and its forthcoming advanced and extremely high frequency system that can achieve up to 8Mb/sec. Its first spacecraft should be launched next year.
Boeing and Lockheed Martin are in competition for the TSAT space segment development and production contract, the final request for proposals for which was published on 17 June.
"Due to other high-profile source selections that have been in the news lately we are being asked to be much more deliberative in the process to evaluate the proposals. Scrutiny is very high," says TSAT programme director and the USAF Space and Missile Systems Center's military satellite communications systems wing's technical director Richard Pino.
Work began on TSAT in January 2004, when $1 billion of research and development contracts were awarded to Boeing and Lockheed, which have since been extended three times. The move to an request for proposals began in 2005, but the first industry day was not held until 2006 and a design review of the bidders' space segment work did not occur until April 2007. The programme's delays led to a review that examined whether some of its technology could be transferred to the Advanced Extremely High Frequency programme, but this was rejected (Flight International, 18-24 April 2006).
Deployment of the new bandwidth will lag even once in orbit, as ground terminals have to be rolled out to the armed forces' units.
On 17 September Lockheed announced a successful test of TSAT radiator technology, while Boeing has demonstrated related laser communications technology and digital signal processing.
Source: Flight International
