Lockheed Martin has gotten the green light—and a $23 million contract from Northrop Grumman—to proceed with the upgrade of the B-2 bomber’s satellite communications system. Earlier this year, the Air Force approved the plan presented by B-2 prime contractor Northrop. A company release says the modernized SATCOM will enable the B-2s to send and receive data faster and offers “beyond-line-of-sight, assured connectivity capability,” ensuring the bombers are compatible with current and future extremely high frequency SATCOM architectures.
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.

