Lockheed Martin announced today the successful delivery of the flight structure for the second Advanced Extremely High Frequency (EHF) spacecraft. The Advanced EHF system will provide global, highly secure, protected, survivable communications for all warfighters serving under the U.S. Department of Defense.

The successful on-schedule delivery allows the team of Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Sunnyvale, Calif., the Advanced EHF prime contractor, and Northrop Grumman Space Technology, Redondo Beach, Calif., the payload supplier, to begin component installation and payload integration.

"This important milestone is the result of our team's focus and determination to successfully execute this vital program," said Julie Sattler, vice president, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. "Advanced EHF will serve as an essential component of our military space architecture, providing high-speed, protected communications to deployed forces and their command structure. We look forward to our continued progress and achieving mission success for our customer."

Based on Lockheed Martin's flight-proven A2100 spacecraft series, Advanced EHF satellites will provide greater total capacity and offer channel data rates higher than that of Milstar communications satellites. The higher data rates permit transmission of tactical military communications such as real- time video, battlefield maps and targeting data.

Lockheed Martin is currently under contract to provide three Advanced EHF satellites and the command control system to its customer, the MILSATCOM Joint Program Office, located at the Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif. Development of the Advanced EHF satellite system is progressing on schedule towards first launch in April 2008.

Lockheed Martin has a long history of providing government and commercial customers with system solutions which successfully achieve their advanced communications needs. This year, its Space Systems Company is celebrating its 50th Anniversary of developing innovative systems for military, civil, and government customers.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin employs about 135,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2005 sales of $37.2 billion.

Media Contact: Steve Tatum, 408-742-7531; e-mail, Stephen.o.tatum@lmco.com

SOURCE: Lockheed Martin