The society Maxar Technologies will help build a US satellite missile alert systemthis is what is reported in a press release from the company itself.
Colorado-based Maxar Technologies will provide 14 tracking satellites as part of the infrastructure of the Space Development Agency (SDA) in orbit to assist with US anti-satellite weapons technology, this according to how much announced by Maxar herself last week, Tuesday 9th August.
The satellites will be produced by 2024 for L3Harris Technologieswhich together with Northrop Grumman are building the first two tranches of the SDA constellation, among other things, the press release released by Maxar Technologies refers to the second batch of satellites, which L3Harris aims to launch in 2025.
Maxar officials said satellites in low Earth orbit will help with the SDA constellation’s objectives, which are “to provide limited global guidance, warnings and tracking of conventional and advanced missile threats, including hypersonic missile systems.”
What do these products made by Maxar Technologies consist of?
Hypersonic weapons, which travel to speeds of Mach 5 or higherare a target of the US military and international players, which is why in June, the US hypersonic missile defense program narrowed its hypersonic development scope to two prototypes manufactured by Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Missiles.
A congressional expense account has set aside an additional 550 million dollars in fiscal year 2022 to accelerate the development of Tranche 1, the second series of satellites, with the assignment having taken place as the SDA has raised alarms on the Russian and Chinese development of hypersonic vehicles and since the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a hypersonic missile interception program.
SDA’s missile tracking system is now developing Tranche 1 tracking level, which will update Tranche 0, a first set of 28 satellites that will be launched with SpaceX starting from September.
For Tranche 0, eight tracking-level satellites will be used to detect threats and send information to 20 tracking satellites, which can send the data they receive to a weapons platform, according to a declaration issued by the Department of Defense in 2020.
Like the initial constellation, Tranche 1 will also include 28 satellites with infrared sensors that now cost $ 2.5 billion, according to a SpaceNews report quoting an unnamed Defense Department official. L3 Harris has a $ 700 million share of the Tranche 1 SDA contracts, totaling $ 1.3 billion.
During a briefing in July, the director of the SDA, Derek Tournear, stated that the Tranche 1 will be the first set of satellites to target hypersonic maneuvering vehicles and has directly drawn a link with Chinese and Russian activities.
Tournear himself further stated later:
“These satellites are specifically designed to track that next-generation version of the threat available. This is the capacity we are bringing that is new ”.
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