ST. LOUIS, April 8 -- The Boeing Co. and Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. have announced they will jointly develop laser communications technologies they say will improve the efficiency of satellite communications "by a factor of ten or more." Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will jointly market laser communications technology as merchant suppliers to the US government and its suppliers. "As the need continues to grow for the rapid transmission of increasingly larger amounts of information, satellite-based laser communications is vital," said Roger Roberts, senior vice president of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, Boeing's center for intelligence programs. "Our customers are moving to a network-centric environment, where platforms and systems become nodes on a super network. Near-immediate access to information on this network is critical, and laser communication technologies are capable of addressing that need." For more information, visit: www.boeing.com