US: Raytheon Company has completed a number of design and development milestones for a nuclear-hardened command and control system, one year after receiving a USD 134 million US Air Force contract to provide secure communications between the president, senior military leaders and the bomber fleet.
The programme to upgrade the satellite terminals for the protected communications network has successfully passed system requirements and preliminary design reviews. Functional Qualification Testing and other milestones are expected before a Milestone C decision and production award by the end of 2016. The upgrade will mark the first time that the bomber fleet air bases have access to the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellites, which will provide secure, protected communications.
Source: Raytheon
