Nichols Martin
Lockheed Martin has tested the performance of the U.S. Air Force's fourth Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite during an on-orbit test, the final step before the company transfers spacecraft control authority to the Space and Missiles Systems Center.
AEHF-4, which lifted off in October 2018, includes a Northrop Grumman-built communications payload and works to support extended data rate coverage for military users worldwide, Lockheed said Monday.
Global XDR capability is designed to transmit information faster than the communication modes used on the Milstar satellite constellation.
AEHF-4 will work to provide the U.S., Dutch and U.K. armed forces with communications across land, sea and air domains.
U.S., Canadian, Dutch and U.K. armed forces can send or receive information via AEHF satellites when they perform missions on air, ground and sea platforms.
Lockheed delivered AEHF-5 from its factory in Sunnyvale, Calif., to Cape Canaveral AF Station in Florida on April 20. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch in late June.
