{"id":48871,"date":"2025-07-07T19:07:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T11:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/space-systems-command-gives-nod-to-boeing-over-northrop-grumman-for-ess-satellites\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T19:07:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T11:07:12","slug":"space-systems-command-gives-nod-to-boeing-over-northrop-grumman-for-ess-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/space-systems-command-gives-nod-to-boeing-over-northrop-grumman-for-ess-satellites\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Systems Command Gives Nod to Boeing Over Northrop Grumman for ESS Satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p data-uw-rm-sr=\"\"><strong>Space Force Space Systems Command<\/strong> (SSC) gave a boost to&nbsp;<strong>Boeing<\/strong>\u2018s confidence last week, as SSC chose the company over <strong>Northrop Grumman<\/strong> for a $2.8 billion contract to build the first two Evolved Strategic SATCOM (ESS) satellites.<\/p>\n<p>ESS is to replace the six&nbsp;<strong>Lockheed Martin<\/strong> Advanced Extremely High Frequency (EHF) satellites for U.S. nuclear command, control, and communications (NC3). Space Force has looked to deploy ESS in fiscal 2030 to achieve an initial operational capability in fiscal 2032. The Extended Data Rate Advanced EHF has supplemented the five orbiting Milstar satellites built by Lockheed Martin. The latter satellites feature low and medium-data rate communications.<\/p>\n<p>The ESS constellation is to be interoperable with Advanced EHF and eventually replace it.<\/p>\n<p>In 2020, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman received contracts for&nbsp;ESS rapid prototyping, which SSC leaders have said is key to the command\u2019s approach to NC3 modernization. Air Force Lt. Gen. Andrew Gebara, the service\u2019s deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration, has said that NC3 has more than 250 nodes, and the Department of the Air Force controls about 75% of NC3, which ensures that nuclear forces are able to launch upon orders from the president.<\/p>\n<p>Air Force Maj. Gen. Ty Neuman, the director of strategic plans, programs, and requirements at Air Force Global Strike Command, has discussed a role for artificial intelligence in aiding cyber protection for NC3 and in choosing the best NC3 inputs among over the air high frequency waves, SATCOM, voice, beyond line of sight, and future fiber optic cables that are to replace the Minuteman III\u2019s copper-wired Hardened Intersite Cable System in the Air Force\u2019s NC3 Next architecture for the future Northrop Grumman LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM.<\/p>\n<p data-uw-rm-sr=\"\">\u201cThe ESS system of systems is composed of cryptographic, ground, and space segments procured by the Space Force and a user terminal segment procured by the individual [military] services,\u201d SSC said last week in announcing the award to Boeing for the first two ESS satellites. \u201cThe first four satellites will be delivered under a cost reimbursement contract. As part of the larger $12 billion ESS Space Segment acquisition, additional satellites are planned to be procured through fixed price contract actions that may be awarded as sole source to support Full Operational Capability and attain global coverage, including enhanced Arctic capability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-uw-rm-sr=\"\"><em>This story was first published by Defense Daily<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Space Force Space Systems Command (SSC) gave a boost to&nbsp;Boeing\u2018s confidence last week, as SSC chose the company over Northrop Grumman for a $2.8 billion contract to build the first two Evolved Strategic SATCOM (ESS) satellites. ESS is to replace the six&nbsp;Lockheed Martin Advanced Extremely High Frequency (EHF) satellites for U.S. nuclear command, control, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48871"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}