The U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin completed a reconfiguration of the five Milstar satellites intended to improve the system’s capabilities, Lockheed Martin announced July 16.

The operation entailed repositioning the satellites relative to one another to maximize and improve the constellation’s coverage of Earth. The seven-month reconfiguration was conduced by a team of engineers from Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Sunnyvale, Calif., the Milstar prime contractor, and the 4th Space Operations Squadron at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo., the Air Force’s team which flies and maintains the constellation.

The Milstar constellation provides secure communications for warfighters. The first satellite was placed into orbit in 1994 and the fifth in 2003. The Milstar satellites will be replaced by the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites, with the first one scheduled to be lofted into orbit in mid-2008.