[Satellite TODAY Insider 09-05-11] Boeing was awarded a $1.09 billion contract from the U.S. Air Force to build its seventh Wideband Global Satcom (WGS-7) satellite at its manufacturing facility in El Segundo, Calif., the U.S. Department of Defense announced Sept. 2.

            The contract also includes a provision that will allow the Pentagon to procure its eighth WGS satellite (WGS-8) from Boeing, as well as an option for production and launch of WGS-9. The WGS satellite series were designed to dramatically enhance U.S. military communications from troops in the field to fighter jets overhead. WGS-7 will specifically support additional X- and Ka-band communications requirements for U.S. military warfighters. The satellites have recently been a part of Boeing’s discussion concerning the complimentary abilities of hosted payloads. No target launch date for WGS-7 has been set at this time.

            In August 2010, Boeing won a $182 million Air Force contract to begin long-lead procurement and development work on WGS-7.

Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems’ Bob Pickard told Satellite TODAY Insider that the successful launch and operation of WGS-3 provided a stepping stone to the company’s work on the Air Force’s Block 2 constellation and the WGS-7 satellite. “This is a satellite program that continues to deliver positive results and significant value to the warfighter. Boeing is progressing well in building the 3 Block 2 satellites and is working with the Air Force on a follow-on series with up to six more satellites.”

            In April, EMS Defense & Space received a follow-on contract from Boeing to design and fully integrate a power divider and a splitter combiner assembly for the WGS-7 spacecraft. EMS Defense & Space will provide space, airborne and ground-based applications, as well as its Wavestorm GS-GBS Ka-band receive antenna aperture designed to enable full data rates from the WGS constellation and support airborne or ground-based comms-on-the-move applications across all of the major X-band constellations.