Boeing announced that it demonstrated high-data-rate transmissions between a Family of Advanced Beyond-Line-of-Sight Terminals system and a test terminal for the Advanced Extremely High Frequency military communications satellite. “With more than half of the system integration tests successfully completed, the FAB-T program is well on its way to starting system qualification testing in 2012,” said Paul Geery, Boeing’s FAB-T program manager. FAB-T is designed to provide the Air Force and Navy with protected wideband satellite communications in support of the command and control of US nuclear forces. The demonstration took place in August at Northrop Grumman’s facility in Redondo Beach, Calif. It involved a FAB-T unit and an AEHF universal system test terminal communicating through a ground AEHF payload, according to Boeing. FAB-T is meant to work with both the existing Milstar communications satellites and the new AEHF constellation for passing voice, text and data communications.
The Space Force should take bold, decisive steps—and soon—to develop the capabilities and architecture needed to support more flexible, dynamic operations in orbit and counter Chinese aggression and technological progress, according to a new report from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
