17th May 2021 - 14:00 GMT | by Jason Sherman in New York RSS
The US military has adopted a new space architecture. (Image: CSIS)
New OPIR strategy relies on prototyping and experimentation to shape future investments.
The US military has adopted a new space architecture that aims to harmonise Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) requirements for strategic and tactical missile warning, missile defence and battlespace awareness missions a strategy that spans three agencies and tens of billions of dollars in planned spending.
The Overhead Persistent Infrared Enterprise Architecture Strategy, provided by the Pentagon to Congress in late December 2020, aims to address concerns by lawmakers about a lack of consensus inside the US military over an agreed and affordable integrated enterprise space architecture.
L3Harris sees opportunities in Pentagon’s growing responsive space business 4 days ago L3Harris is building a prototype satellite for the Missile Defense Agency s Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor, which will work with the Space Development Agency s tracking layer satellites to trace hypersonic weapons. (L3Harris) WASHINGTON As the Department of Defense puts more resources into responsive space architectures, L3Harris feels well positioned to compete for and win space system contracts. The concept of responsive space architectures differentiates itself from the exquisite satellite systems DoD has traditionally invested in. “The current space architecture is largely based on high performance or exquisite systems. These systems are costly and take a decade or more to develop and put into service,” said President of Space and Airborne Systems Ed Zoiss during a March 10 investors briefing.
L3Harris leaped from tracking weather to tracking missiles, cracking a competitive field Nathan Strout
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An artist s depiction of L3Harris tracking layer satellite, which will be part of a solution designed by the Space Development Agency and the Missile Defense Agency to track and target hypersonic weapons from space. (L3Harris) WASHINGTON In January 2017, one of the government’s newest weather satellites picked up the most bizarre signal: a wildfire moving at breakneck speeds across the Atlantic Ocean. Now, wildfires don’t spread across the ocean, and they certainly don’t move at the pace being reported. What was going on?
The
U.S. Missile Defense Agency has awarded
L3Harris Technologies a $121 million contract to build space flight hardware to demonstrate the company’s solution for the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) program. The HBTSS is one of several proposed missions within the
U.S. Department of Defense’s next-generation proliferated Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) space architecture. L3Harris said in a Monday release that this award follows on a 2019 study contract.
L3Harris has also been selected for two other layers of the missile warning and defense architecture, including a
Space Development Agency (SDA) contract to build and launch four space vehicles to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles. In addition, the U.S. Air Force selected L3Harris to design prototype payload and mission concepts for what has evolved into the U.S. Space Force’s Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) track custody demonstration.