The US Air Force (USAF) Space and Missile Systems Center is harnessing modern satellite communication technology through the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS)-11+ platform to deliver twice the capability.

According to Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) located at Los Angeles Air Force Base, the WGS-11+ adapts new technologies to provide more coverage beams and more beam-formed bandwidth.

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SMC’s Production Corps and Portfolio Architect’s Mission System Integration team collaborated with Boeing and concluded a Systems Requirements Review (SRR) agreement together with the army and navy.

Together, they worked to ensure the system’s technical baseline will increase value for troops on a five-year schedule.

The WGS team is embedded at the Boeing facility and could apply lessons obtained from extensive testing performed by a similar commercial space programme using the same digital payload technologies.

Following the completion of SRR, the WGS-11+ team has initiated production and prototyping of Pathfinder hardware units to reduce the risk for the final production build on its ‘Road to Preliminary Design Review’ campaign.

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WGS-11+ will be capable of forming unique coverage areas anywhere within the field of regard.

SMC Production Corps Geosynchronous / Polar Division chief John Dukes said: “The resilient design will deliver combatant commanders twice the mission capability through contested environments, improving capacity and coverage to soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines.”

WGS Aerospace Platform lead Dr Mark Peterson said: “WGS-11+ enhances operational flexibility and performance to better serve the warfighter, the system will provide more coverage beams than the entire existing WGS constellation.”

The WGS-11+ platform will also enable seamless broadband interconnectivity for X-band and Ka-band users.

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