EMS Technologies [Nasdaq: ELMG] said it has delivered ahead of schedule an engineering model of the beam-forming network (BFN) for the U.S. Department of Defense‘s advanced EHF satellite system. The DoD system is expected to provide secure, high-speed communications to U.S. and allied forces worldwide.

The engineering model, delivered to prime contractor Northrop Grumman [NYSE: NOC], replicates the size and performance of the actual flight unit, but contains some non-space-qualified parts, EMS explained. The BFN enables a satellite’s antennas to form a shaped pattern on Earth that “nulls,” or cancels out, signals from jammers, while at the same time letting “friendly” users within the area of coverage communicate with the satellite.