Members of the Air Force-Boeing WGS team accepted the award on October 28 at the National Defense Industry Association‘s (NDIA) Systems Engineering Conference in San Diego. Each year, the Department of Defense and NDIA recognize up to five defense programs that have demonstrated superior systems engineering practices that result in outstanding program performance.
WGS satellites address the military’s growing need for high-bandwidth communications, ranging from transmission of full-motion video and sensor data gathered from unmanned aerial vehicles, to video teleconferencing among military leaders around the world, to provision of quality-of-life services such as e-mail, news, and special event broadcasts for deployed troops. Boeing is currently under contract to build six WGS satellites for the Air Force. WGS-1 was placed into operation over the Pacific Ocean in April 2008 and WGS-2 entered service over the Middle East in August 2009. Both satellites are meeting and, in some cases, far exceeding mission requirements. WGS-3 is scheduled for launch later this year.
