Northrop Grumman Corp. said yesterday it had provided the U.S. Air Force with the first of two new missile defense satellites slated to be placed in orbit this year (see GSN, May 23).
The Space Tracking and Surveillance System demonstration satellites are intended to prove the effectiveness of space-based missile-tracking technology ahead of the wider system's construction and deployment. The completed satellite network would be capable of passing continuous tracking data back to the wider U.S. missile defense system quickly enough to enable interceptors to bring down a strategic or tactical missile.
"This delivery is a significant milestone in the development of our nation's ability to defend against an increasing ballistic missile threat," Gabe Watson, vice president and STSS program manager for the defense contractor's Aerospace Systems sector, said in a statement.
The satellites would become the Defense Department's only orbiting system capable of tracking a ballistic missile's movement through outer space during its midcourse phase of flight, Watson noted. Ground-based radar can only track missiles within the atmosphere during their boost and terminal phases (Northrop Grumman Corp. release, June 22).
"We have many capabilities to track terminal and boost phases and far fewer capabilities in tracking midcourse," company spokesman Bob Bishop told the Torrance, Calif., Daily Breeze. "This adds a layer to the current ballistic missile defenses. We call it birth-to-death tracking of ballistic missiles" (Muhammed El-Hasan, Daily Breeze, June 22).
Northrop Grumman constructed the two demonstration satellites under an $868 million Pentagon issued in 2002.
The STSS control center has already begun operations at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado, the company said (Northrop Grumman release).