Air Force seeks new nuclear command-and-control terminals

After more than a decade of delays, the Air Force launched an advanced satellite on Aug. 14 to provide jam-proof communications for nuclear forces, but the service is rethinking its strategy to develop terminals for bombers and ground stations to avoid further extensions.

The Air Force plans to acquire six Advanced Extremely High-Frequency satellites for a project that has stretched over more than a decade, starting in 1999 at a cost of $3.2 billion to develop and put in orbit the first satellite. The Air Force estimates it will spend another $4 billion for five more satellites.

The AEHF satellites, developed by Lockheed Martin Corp., operate at data rates ranging from a little faster than a 1990s dial-up modem (75 bits per second) to about the same as a home cable modem or telephone high-speed Internet connection (8 megabits per second).

Gary Payton, deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for space programs, told the House Armed Services Committee in April that the AEHF satellites will increase the throughput for the jam-proof communications needed for overseeing nuclear forces from kilobytes per second to a megabyte per second.

The Air Force awarded Boeing Co. a contract currently valued at $2.7 billion to design and build 216 terminals for use in B-2 and B-52 nuclear bombers, for aerial command posts for the president and top defense commanders, and fixed terminals to be used in ground command centers.

But the Government Accountability Office reported in March Boeing had missed its February target to begin production of the terminals.

In an October 2009 report, GAO estimated the Air Force will have deployed only 2 percent of the AEHF terminals by 2011 and will not field all terminals until 2019.

Faced with the delay, the Air Force Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., invited contractors to a meeting in July to discuss "the potential for an alternate source for development and production" of the AEHF terminals.

At the briefing, officials said they wanted to install terminals on nuclear-strike aircraft and air-and-ground command posts in 2015, with 23 terminals for RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft slated for delivery in 2016.

The Air Force emphasized it needed to conduct market research and feasibility studies, and obtain high-level acquisition approval before it proceeds with an alternative to the AEHF terminal strategy. Official plan to present its new plan to the Defense Acquisition Board in August or September.

Thirty companies, including Boeing, General Dynamics Inc., Lockheed and Northrop Grumman Corp. responded to the Air Force's request for information.