Raytheon has won a more than $250 million contract to design and manufacture seven missile-tracking satellites that can monitor and warn of hypersonic weapon attacks, the company announced in a press release on Thursday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2023) Raytheon has won a more than $250 million contract to design and manufacture seven missile-tracking satellites that can monitor and warn of hypersonic weapon attacks, the company announced in a press release on Thursday.
"Raytheon Technologies received an award valued at more than $250 million to design, develop and deliver a seven-vehicle missile tracking satellite constellation, as well as support launch and ground operations by the Space Development Agency," the release said. "Space Development Agency's satellite constellations will provide warning, tracking, and targeting of advanced missile threats, including hypersonic weapon attacks."
Once deployed, the low-Earth orbit constellation of networked satellites will become the fifth plane of satellites to provide missile warning and tracking for the Defense Department. The program is a key element of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, the release said.
"Developing a resilient and affordable proliferated satellite constellation in low-Earth orbit will improve our ability to track emerging threats like hypersonic missiles. Continuing to develop this architecture with SDA and our industry partners will be a high priority for us in the coming months," the release said.
Raytheon will seek to leverage existing designs, available commercial products and common components to reduce technical risk and speed delivery, the release added.
The seven-vehicle satellite constellation will feature Raytheon's Wide Field of View overhead persistent infrared sensor, Blue Canyon Technologies' Saturn-class microsatellite bus and SEAKR Engineering's electronics payload, according to the release.
