{"id":71613,"date":"2025-07-03T21:21:45","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T21:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2025\/07\/03\/space-force-picks-boeing-for-28b-strategic-communications-program\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:13:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:13:23","slug":"space-force-picks-boeing-for-28b-strategic-communications-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/space\/2025\/07\/03\/space-force-picks-boeing-for-28b-strategic-communications-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Force picks Boeing for $2.8B strategic communications program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Space Force on Thursday awarded Boeing a $2.8 billion contract to provide secure, survivable communications for strategic missions through the service\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2023\/10\/26\/space-force-sees-satcom-awards-surging-to-20-billion-this-fiscal-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2023\/10\/26\/space-force-sees-satcom-awards-surging-to-20-billion-this-fiscal-year\/\">Evolved Strategic Satellite Communications program<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Boeing edged out Northrop Grumman for the contract, which funds two initial satellites with options for the Space Force to buy two additional satellites. The two companies have been building <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2024\/02\/23\/space-forces-fixed-price-push-includes-some-exceptions-calvelli-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2024\/02\/23\/space-forces-fixed-price-push-includes-some-exceptions-calvelli-says\/\">prototype satellites<\/a> for the effort under 2020 contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe U.S. needs a strategic national security architecture that works without fail, with the highest level of protection and capability,\u201d said Kay Sears, vice president and general manager of Boeing\u2019s Space, Intelligence and Weapons systems business. \u201cWe designed an innovative system to provide guaranteed communication to address an evolving threat environment in space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Evolved Strategic SATCOM, or ESS, is a successor to the Space Force\u2019s Advanced Extremely High Frequency constellation. The new satellites will have improved resilience and cyber capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Work on the contract is expected to be completed by 2033.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a statement, the service said it expects to procure additional satellites as part of the broader $12 billion ESS program, including an enhanced Arctic capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/space\/2023\/09\/07\/us-space-force-eyes-partnerships-for-tactical-satellite-communications\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/canva-photo-editor-2.png.png?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">US Space Force eyes partnerships for tactical satellite communications<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Leaders eye international efforts like the British Skynet architecture as a touchpoint for collaboration.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just before announcing the ESS contract, the Space Force revealed in a press release that it would cancel another SATCOM program called Protected Tactical SATCOM\u2013Resilient, or PTS-R. The cancellation is part of a new SATCOM strategy that prioritizes delivering incremental capability on faster timelines. The service said the new \u201cfamily of systems\u201d approach will initially focus on faster delivery of anti-jam capabilities through the existing Protected Tactical Waveform effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The service didn\u2019t flesh out the details of the strategy, but noted that the baseline capabilities for the other programs in the architecture will remain in place. That includes Protected Tactical SATCOM-Global, Protected Tactical Enterprise Service, Enterprise Management and Control and the Air Force-Army Anti-Jam Modem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Space Force expects the new approach will reduce costs and result in \u201clower-risk\u201d contracts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Initial Protected Tactical SATCOM prototypes are slated to launch next year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The new satellites will have improved resilience and cyber capabilities and provide polar coverage \u2014 a capability not featured on the legacy satellites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":120177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":23,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"9":{"categories":["space","battlefield-tech"],"primary_category":"space"}}},"categories":[160,36,23],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3468],"class_list":["post-71613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters","category-space"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"MOTUGSPF6FGVJHANGWLI7OWNJI","arc_canonical_url":"\/space\/2025\/07\/03\/space-force-picks-boeing-for-28b-strategic-communications-program\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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satellites.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/space\/2025\/07\/03\/space-force-picks-boeing-for-28b-strategic-communications-program\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-03T21:21:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T01:13:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Courtney Albon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Courtney Albon\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            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