Technicians at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., recently encapsulated the first Wideband Global Satellite, working toward an Oct. 9 launch date aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V. The WGS system is slated to replace the two-decade-old Defense Satellite Communication System and greatly surpass its capability. In fact, Col. Donald Robbins, who heads the WGS effort for Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles, said that the launch of WGS SV-1 put us on “the cusp of providing more capacity than the entire on-orbit” DSCS constellation.
The Pentagon nuclear command, control, and communications enterprise is decades old and desperate for an upgrade, says the head of U.S. Strategic Command, and artificial intelligence could help fortify nuclear C3 for its no-fail mission.