HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. – The U.S. Air Force is awarding a $2 billion order to RTX Corp. to provide survivable, global, protected satellite communications (SATCOM) for strategic command and tactical operations.

Officials of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center Strategic Communications Division at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., are asking the RTX Raytheon segment in Marlboro, Mass., for Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) terminals.

The Raytheon AEHF terminal enables personnel on the ground and aboard military ships to access military SATCOM networks that provide secure, jam-resistant, global communications for strategic and tactical forces. This order brings the contract's total value to $2.97 billion from $960 million.

Compatible with MILSTAR

The AEHF extremely high frequency (EHF) SATCOM terminals operate at frequencies from 30 to 300 GHz, and are compatible with legacy MILSTAR communications satellites for strategic and tactical operations, including nuclear command and control.

These SATCOM terminals can in forward-deployed environments, and helps enable nuclear command and control communications from the air. They offer encrypted communications to prevent interception, and can worldwide through geosynchronous AEHF satellites.

On this order, Raytheon will do the work in Marlboro, Mass., and Largo, Fla., and should be finished by August 2031. For more information contact RTX Raytheon online at www.rtx.com/raytheon, or the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at www.afnwc.af.mil.