The Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) B10 satellite completed 15 years on orbit, 50 percent more than its 10-year design life, builder Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT] announced.

The entire DSCS constellation, which provides secure and reliable communications service to the warfighter, will surpass 200 years of cumulative on-orbit service erly next year, the largest total operational experience of any U.S. military communications satellite constellation, according to Lockheed.

The company designed and built 14 DSCS spacecraft for the Military Satellite Communications Wing at the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif.

The system provides uninterrupted secure voice and high-data rate communications to Department of Defense users; essential tools in monitoring events and deploying and sustaining forces anywhere in the world.

DSCS III satellites on-orbit today have a design life of 10-years. But that can be stretched with the ability to better estimate the on-board fuel, combined with new techniques for maximizing fuel usage, allowing the birds to exceed their design life by several years.

The Lockheed Martin-built Milstar constellation continues to provide secure, reliable and robust communications to U.S. and allied forces around the globe. By April, the Milstar constellation will surpass 50 total years of cumulative on-orbit operations.

Lockheed Martin is also progressing on the Department of Defense highly secure communications satellite system, the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) program.

As successor to Milstar, AEHF will increase data rates by a factor of five, permitting transmission of more tactical military communications, such as real-time video, battlefield maps and targeting data. The first Lockheed Martin-built AEHF spacecraft completed initial thermal vacuum testing and is planned for delivery to the Air Force in 2010.

Lockheed also is vying for the next-generation Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT). It ultimately will replace the Milstar and AEHF constellations and provide thousands of military users with wideband, highly mobile, beyond line-of-sight protected communications to support network-centric operations for the future battlefield.