Lockheed Martin has won the leading role in a $2.5 billion contract to build the U.S. military's next generation of high-capacity, high-security communications satellites.
Lockheed, the world's biggest defense company, will team with Hughes and TRW to produce a string of five satellites for the Department of Defense. Production will begin in 2001 and the first of five satellites is expected to be launched in late 2004.
"This is a win-win situation for all involved," said Jeffery Adams, spokesman for Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Sunnyvale, California. "It puts together an all-star team that leverages the strengths of these companies."
Until last month, Lockheed and TRW together were competing against Hughes for the contract. But all three companies decided to form a "national team" to build the constellation.
The troika will be able to deliver a group of satellites with much greater transmission capability, at half the cost than the Milstar 2 satellites, and 18 months earlier than previously scheduled, Adams said.
TRW and Hughes will build the satellites at their Redondo Beach and El Segundo, California facilities. Lockheed Martin's Sunnyvale, California space unit will integrate the satellites and test them.
The arrangement is similar to the Milstar communications satellite on which Lockheed Martin, TRW and Hughes are teamed. The program will fill in the gap in military-communications satellite coverage after the loss of the $800 million Milstar satellite more than a year ago, Adams said.
"It’s a quantum leap from the Milstar system," Adams said. The new satellites are capable of transmitting 10 times (8.2 million bits of data per second) the information that current satellites are capable of handling. This will allow the Pentagon and military commanders on the ground to communicate instantly through real-time video and battlefield maps, he said.
"It will give an instant, highly secured link to decision makers at the Pentagon," Adams said.
This is good news for Lockheed, which has suffered through a series of contract losses recently. Lockheed’s satellite business took a beating last year when the government chose Boeing for a $5 billion-satellite deal forcing the company to cut thousands of jobs.
This latest deal could stem those losses.
"This contract will sustain the base of core jobs for those working on Milstar for the next 10 years." Adams said. There are about 7,300 to 7.400 jobs in Sunnyvale, of which 1,200 are working for the military satellite program.
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