Boeing and Lockheed are posturing and maneuvering to secure their share of billions of dollars in future military contracts. In the short term, both companies are vying for an $11-billion contract to build five military communications satellites, Bloomberg reported. The satellites, a simpler version of a plan that once called for using lasers to transmit full-frame video, could be launched starting in 2019; the Air Force is expected to make its decision later this year. Separately, Lockheed is moving ahead with its plans to shut down its flight service station in Macon, Ga., at the end of this month, the Macon Telegraph reported. The closure is part of the company’s effort to pare down the 18 flight service stations it currently operates. Lockheed has said the closures at Macon and elsewhere in the nation won’t affect service, since most of the briefers are being offered jobs at other flight service stations. Critics have long argued that Lockheed’s takeover and consolidation of the nation’s flight service stations is reducing the amount of local knowledge briefers have about airports, terrain and weather.