Northrop to supply EHF XDR payloads
Northrop Grumman has received a $429 million contract from the US Air Force to provide two Extremely High Frequency eXtended Data Rate (EHF XDR) payloads for the Enhanced Polar System-Recapitalization (EPS-R), the company announced on 7 June.
The EPS-R EHF system provides secure, anti-jam, low probability of detection/intercept communications for military forces. Designed to enable hosting on a separately procured satellite with other payloads, the EPS-R payloads will maintain continuity of protected military satellite communications in the North Polar Region.
The company deployed the EPS Control and Planning Segment hardware in December 2015 to operational sites at Clear Air Force Station, Alaska and Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado. CAPS is a next-generation ground system that receives telemetry and supplies configuration commands, mission planning and cryptographic planning for EPS polar-orbiting payloads.
Cyrus Dhalla, VP, communications systems, Northrop Grumman, said: ‘EPS-R provides communications services to critical national security users. We are pleased to support the air force as a system prime in the timely recapitalisation of the protected, anti-jam communications capabilities in the strategically important polar region.’
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