Northrop Grumman Awarded $429M Contract for Payload that will Provide Continuous Coverage of Polar Regions

A Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) payload will provide highly protected communications for warfighters under a new $429 million contract with the U.S. Air Force.

Northrop Grumman was awarded a $429 million contract to provide two Extremely High Frequency eXtended Data Rate (EHF XDR) payloads for the Enhanced Polar System-Recapitalization (EPS-R). The contract was awarded by Space and Missile Systems Center, Military Satellite Communications Directorate, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California.

The EPS-R EHF system provides secure, anti-jam, low probability of detection/intercept communications for warfighters. The EPS-R payloads will maintain continuity of protected military satellite communications in the North Polar Region, and are designed to enable hosting on a separately procured satellite with other payloads.

“EPS-R provides communications services to critical national security users,” said Cyrus Dhalla, vice president, communications systems, Northrop Grumman. “We are pleased to support the Air Force as a system prime in the timely recapitalization of the protected, anti-jam communications capabilities in the strategically important polar region.”

In 2013, Northrop Grumman delivered two payloads that were hosted on government-owned satellites to bring next-generation protected, EHF communications to military users in the north polar region (above 65◦ North).

Northrop Grumman also successfully deployed the EPS Control and Planning Segment (CAPS) hardware in December 2015 to operational sites at Clear Air Force Station, Alaska and Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado – paving the way for System Acceptance Testing in the spring of 2017. CAPS is a next-generation ground system that receives telemetry and supplies configuration commands, mission planning and cryptographic planning for the two EPS polar-orbiting payloads.