Northrop Grumman has announced recent milestones for two of the Air Force’s major next-generation satellite programs. In a release Monday, the company said it delivered the payload module for the third advanced extremely high frequency military communications satellite on Feb. 27 to Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for AEHF. Next up for the payload is mating with the AEHF satellite bus, Northrop said, noting that the delivery took place three weeks ahead of schedule. And, according to a Feb. 27 release, Northrop has completed thermal vacuum testing of the sensor payload for the second space based infrared system early warning satellite dubbed GEO-2. As with AEHF, Northrop is the payload supplier to prime contractor Lockheed Martin. This spring, the payload will be delivered to Lockheed for integration on the GEO-2 satellite bus.
The U.S. supports “a stronger and more capable” European defense, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said during an Oct. 22 press conference in Brussels—but that defense should not duplicate the functions and capabilities of the NATO alliance.