The United States Space Force has awarded Boeing a $2.8 billion contract to build the first phase of the Pentagon’s next-generation satellites to enable nuclear command, control, and communications (NC3). These satellites, part of the much broader Evolved Strategic SATCOM (ESS) system of systems, will replace the Cold War relics on orbit now, called the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellites. Boeing will build two to start with, planned to go into geostationary orbit starting in 2031; Space Force holds the option to purchase an additional two down the road.
This is part of a wider Pentagon effort to upgrade America’s entire nuclear posture, which includes the in-development Sentinel ICBM and B-21 bomber. While those platforms can deliver the nukes if humanity’s worst day ever comes, they are just going to sit in their siloes or landing strips if they don’t actually receive any orders. To ensure that nuclear-necessary communications can get through without being jammed — including up-to-the-second threat detection, calls between the president and top advisors, orders sent to relevant commanders, and even the encrypted strike commands that need to be authenticated — America has to have a dedicated system that’s resilient to, well, everything.
Can the old AEHF satellites defend themselves from Russian hackers or Chinese interference? If the Space Force’s stated intention to get the new system out rapidly is any indication, the answer won’t make you sleep well at night. The USSF tapped Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing all the way back in 2020 to build out prototypes for the space assets for the new ESS system. Just five short years later (light speed in military acquisition terms), Boeing’s design has won the contract.
The birth of a new constellation
In its statement, the Space Force said that the first four satellites are just the beginning. A further $9 billion has been allocated for buying more orbiters in the future, with the goal of creating a full satellite constellation that can cover communications needs anywhere in the world, including the Arctic. The top of the world has not traditionally needed a lot of signal reception, so satellite coverage often doesn’t reach there.
But with climate change thinning the ice caps and making it easier for vessels to operate up there, the navies of the world are starting to think about how they might position in the furthest north. A nuclear-armed sub being ordered to strike nearby Russia from the North Pole isn’t that far a stretch anymore. To do that, though, the Pentagon has to be able to send a signal to that sub in the first place.
Classified technologies
Boeing says that the new ESS satellites will use similar technology to its WGS-11 and WGS-12 satellites in development for Space Force and which are already in commercial use on its O3b mPOWER constellation. In addition, the new orbiters will use “a highly protected waveform and classified technologies developed in partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense,” which sounds suspiciously like it’s of alien origin (not).
Taken together, that’s meant to provide a communications architecture that can resist hostile attempts to jam or disrupt it. Down the road, if a full constellation does go into orbit, the sheer number of satellites becomes its own redundancy, just in case somebody (China), not saying who (China), tries to physically kidnap some of them.
These satellites are the sort of thing you really, really hope that nobody ever has to use. But if the very worst ever happens, you’ll really, really want them to work. Hopefully, as Boeing gets its house in order, they can deliver something dependable.
