Monica Jackson
Boeing aims to accelerate its production of the 11th and 12th Wideband Global Satcom satellites as the U.S. military plans to enhance its space assets, SpaceNews reported Wednesday.
The Chicago-based aerospace company will conduct the effort using the $600 million fund that Congress added into the Pentagon’s 2018 budget.
Rico Attanasio, director of Department of Defense and civil navigation and communications programs at Boeing, told SpaceNews the company will use new commercial buses and manufacturing techniques to build WGS-11 and 12 faster, as well as continue its initial work on the WGS program.
“We tweaked the payload. We put a new channelizer in WGS 8 that almost doubles the bandwidth. We have been able to build these satellites almost on commercial timelines,” he was quoted as saying.
Attanasio added he believes the company will be able to shorten its satellite production timeline for the two latest WGS satellites into less than four years.
