A team composed of Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (Nasdaq: KTOS) and Ball Aerospace has received a $7.2M contract from the Defense Innovation Unit to build a Multi-Band, Multi-Mission satellite antenna prototype.
The MBMM phased array prototype development is part of a program to upgrade the Air Force™s satellite control network and field new technology capabilities to warfighters, Lockheed said Wednesday.
œMBMM is a smarter way to quickly and affordably scale satellite transmission while lowering long-term maintenance costs for the Air Force, said Maria Demaree, vice president and general manager of Lockheed™s mission solutions business.
œToday, when a parabolic antenna goes down, it can take days to repair; with MBMM, it will take hours and won™t take the entire site offline “ that™s a tremendous advantage, Demaree added. Lockheed said MBMM allows several satellites to establish simultaneous connectivity through multiple frequencies using a single array antenna.
The team is developing electronically steerable array prototypes. Each array supports S- and L-band frequencies. It is equipped with cloud-based quantumRadio and digital intermediate frequency platform from Kratos and Ball™s phased array tech systems.
