Article Posted on : - Aug 16, 2010

The Atlas V rocket with the AEHF-1 satellite lifts off from Cape Canaveral. A ULA photo

CAPE CANAVERAL (BNS): The US Air Force has successfully launched its military communications satellite AEHF-1.

The Advanced Extremely High Frequency-1 (AEHF-1) satellite, designed by Lockheed Martin, was launched aboard an Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral space station on August 14.

The new satellite will provide greater total capacity than the entire Milstar II constellation of communications satellites currently on-orbit.

The USAF will launch a total of four AEHF satellites which will provide significantly improved global, survivable, highly secure, protected, communications for warfighters operating on ground, sea and air platforms.

The higher data rates will permit transmission of tactical military communications, such as higher-quality real-time video and faster access to battlefield maps and targeting data.

The AEHF constellation will also serve international partners including Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, Lockheed said.