The U.S. Air Force‘s Milsatcom Joint Program Office has awarded two risk reduction/system definition contracts for the Transformational Communications Milsatcom (TCM) system to Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing Satellite Systems. Each contract, valued at $472 million, is for 27 months. Each contractor will provide the office with critical technology risk reduction demonstrations/products and system definition trades through the system design review (SDR) phase of the program for the space segment, which includes the satellites, ground gateways and a satellite operations center. The subsequent acquisition phase will be conducted under full and open competition and will focus on selecting a single prime contractor to design, develop, build, and field the TCM space segment. Contract award for the next phase is currently scheduled for 2006