Maxar will build 14 missile-tracking satellites for new warning system




In 2025, these satellites should be launched.

A U.S. satellite system for missile warning will be assisted in construction by Maxar Technologies.

As part of the Space Development Agency's (SDA) infrastructure in orbit to support American anti-satellite missile technologies, the Colorado-based company will provide 14 tracking satellites, Maxar announced(opens in new tab) Tuesday (Aug. 9). L3Harris Technologies and Northrop Grumman, who are constructing the first two tranches of the SDA's constellation, will receive the satellites by 2024. The second series of satellites, which L3Harris hopes to launch in 2025, is the subject of Maxar's most recent statement.

The SDA constellation's goals are to "offer limited global indications, warning and monitoring of conventional and advanced missile threats, including hypersonic missile systems," according to Maxar officials. The low-Earth orbit satellites will help with these goals.

The military of the United States and other nations are interested in developing hypersonic weapons, which fly at speeds of Mach 5 or higher. The U.S. hypersonic missile defense program reduced the number of hypersonic prototypes it was considering in June to two, made by Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Missiles.

For fiscal 2022, an additional $550 million(opens in new tab) was allotted by Congress to expedite the creation of Tranche 1, the second group of satellites. The allocation took place when the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was establishing a hypersonic missile interceptor program and the SDA was raising concerns about Russian and Chinese development of hypersonic vehicles.

The Tranche 1 tracking layer, which will improve Tranche 0, an initial batch of 28 satellites that will launch with SpaceX starting in September, is now being developed by SDA's missile-tracking system.

According to a 2020 Department of Defense announcement, eight tracking layer satellites will be employed for Tranche 0 to identify threats and transmit the information to 20 tracking satellites, who can transmit the data they receive to a weapons platform (opens in new tab).

According to a SpaceNews report(opens in new tab) quoting an unnamed Department of Defense source, Tranche 1 will also contain 28 infrared sensor satellites, which are currently projected to cost $2.5 billion. This is similar to the first constellation. A $700 million(opens in new tab) portion of the $1.3 billion total SDA Tranche 1 contracts belongs to L3 Harris.

SDA director Derek Tournear made a clear connection between Chinese and Russian efforts when he stated that Tranche 1 will be the first set of satellites to target hypersonic maneuvering vehicles during a briefing in July(opens in new tab).

The capabilities we're introducing is new, he continued, and "these satellites are especially built to go after that next-generation version of dangers out there."

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