Wednesday marked the launch of the sixth Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. With today’s launch, Boeing and the U.S. Air Force continue to expand the advanced WGS communications network that serves U.S. and allied forces, including the Australian Defence Force.

The mission of the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) system is to provide broadband communications connectivity for U.S. and allied warfighters around the world. WGS is the highest-capacity military communications system in the U.S. Department of Defense arsenal, providing a quantum leap in communications capability for the U.S. military.

WGS supports the Department of Defense’s warfighting information exchange requirements, enabling execution of tactical command and control, communications, and computers; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR); battle management; and combat support information.

This is the second WGS launch this year, following the May 24 deployment of WGS-5.