U.S. Airmen with the 52nd Combat Communications Squadron work together to assemble a ground multiband terminal during Vigilant Shield 15 at the Royal Canadian Air Force 5 Wing at Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador province, Canada, Oct. 15, 2014. Vigilant Shield is a weeklong annual exercise designed to emphasize an integrated Department of Defense and civil response in support of the national strategy of aerospace warning and control, defense support of civil authorities and homeland defense. (DoD photo by Staff Sgt. Matthew B. Fredericks, U.S. Air Force/Released)

The Space Force awarded L3 Technologies and Raytheon’s Space and Airborne Systems contracts worth as much as $1 billion for the development and production of new modems that would help with protected satellite communications.

The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts, each worth as much as $500 million, are part of the Air Force and Army Anti-Jam Modem program, which is also known as A3M. The modems would be capable of handling the new Protected Tactical Waveform, which provides anti-jamming communications for warfighters on the battlefield.

The program is led by the Army’s Program Executive Office Command Control Communications – Tactical and the Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center.

Space Force officials emphasized that they awarded the contract about four months ahead of schedule.

In a request for information from 2018, military officials said the modem would be used in the Air Force Ground Multiband Terminal and Army Space Transportable Terminal. The contracts are also expected to include terminals or terminal components to work with the new Protected Tactical SATCOM system, commercial satellites and the Air Force’s Wideband Global SATCOM satellites.

“We are very excited to be partnering with Raytheon and L3 Technologies Inc. to bring Protected Tactical Waveform anti-jam capability to both Department of the Air Force and Army users,” said Shannon Pallone, senior materiel leader, Tactical SATCOM Division, said in a release. “This was a joint team from the start, a partnership between the Space Force and the Army, and included support from the [National Security Agency].”