US Air Force Conducts Comprehensive AEHF Performance Test

Engineers examining an AEHF antenna. Photo: Northrop Grumman

[Via Satellite 02-11-2015] The United States Air Force concluded a six-month rigorous and complex multiservice operational test and evaluation of its Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) system in January at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado. The test and evaluation’s goal was to ensure the AEHF system performed its missions the way it was designed — to provide survivable, global, secure, protected and jam-resistant communications for military ground, sea and air assets.

For this test, the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center (AFOTEC) Detachment 4 at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, partnered with the 4th Space Operations Squadron, which is responsible for the command and control of the system, as well as other Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine units. To ensure AEHF meets its mission, the team laid out test and evaluation objectives — validate the AEHF’s advanced ground mobile unit, validate the system’s integration to the legacy Milstar constellation, confirm its communication capability for the end-users and ensure the system can operate in a nuclear environment.

“In the event that we go into a nuclear war, we have to make sure a communication link for Department of Defense components and national leadership is available during a contested environment,” said Maj. Matthew Collins, AFOTEC Det. 4 AEHF test director. “And [AEHF] is a system that is capable of providing that connectivity.”