Atlanta-based EMS Technologies [ELMG] completed the first set of beam-forming networks (BFN) for the U.S. Department of Defense‘s (DoD) Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) military communications program.

The communications program, led by Lockheed Martin [LMT], would provide the next generation of global, highly secure, survivable communications for warfighters in all branches of the military. BFNs are a key technology for allowing a satellite’s “nulling antennas” to provide anti-jamming protection. The idea is to nullify signals from potential jammers, while permitting friendly users to communicate with a satellite. The anti-jam function occurs autonomously, without commands from Earth.

“The BFN’s performance is meeting all requirements, making it the first major AEHF program flight payload component to complete flight acceptance testing,” said Clayton Kau, vice president/Advanced EHF program at Northrop Grumman Space Technology [NOC], who added EMS Technologies finished its work two months ahead of schedule. Northrop Grumman is coordinating the program’s antenna development project.