The Air Force awarded teams led by Boeing and Lockheed Martin contract modifications up to $75 million to conduct additional risk-reduction work on their respective transformational communications satellite concepts, the Department of Defense announced June 6. Further, the new awards task each team to perform an industrial base impact study that assumes that USAF picks one of them to finish development and build the TSAT system anytime between July 1 and “six months thereafter through a total delay of 24 months.” The contractors will also develop concepts for two alternative requirements sets called “TSAT digital core” and “TSAT lite,” DOD said.
The Air Force wants more companies able to produce its new, multi-use, anti-radar missile that one expert says will prove vital in any future peer conflict and would be in high demand for the war in Iran if stocks were available now.