REDSTONE ARSENAL, Alabama – Vietnam War veteran was honored by his son and his country during an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., Sept. 10.
Sgt. 1st Class Manuel Romo, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command military equal opportunity adviser and program manager, escorted his father, retired U.S. Navy Petty Officer First Class Felipe A. Romo on the flight.
Honor Flights celebrate America’s veterans by inviting them to share in a day of honor at the memorials in the nation’s capital. The Honor Flight network currently serves veterans from the World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War eras. They also serve terminally ill veterans who served during any era.
“You get the welcome home you never received,” Felipe said. “I was mad at my country for the way I was treated after my return from Vietnam. I know there a lot of veterans suffering from PTSD who would benefit from the trip. I know I found closure.”
Felipe served in the Navy from 1960 to 1984. In Vietnam, he was assigned to the Mobile Riverine Force attached to the Army’s 9th Infantry Division.
“This trip was very important to honor the ones who didn’t make it back,” Felipe said. “For me it meant closure, but it was also about our fellow veterans being honored. It was very emotional, and I would highly recommend it to any veteran.”
During the trip, the Romos visited the U.S. Navy Museum, World War II Memorial, Korean War Memorial and Vietnam War Memorial.
At the U.S. Naval Museum, where the museum has actual turrets from a decommissioned ship, Felipe showed his son how he fired the cannons on the Battleship USS New Jersey.
“It was very emotional and educational,” Manuel said. “The Naval Museum had a cannon platform he used on the Iowa-class battleship USS New Jersey. It was the last ship he served on before he retired, and he was able to show me what he did on his crew position.”
Manuel said he is grateful to the organization for helping veterans visit the war memorials and as a Global War on Terror veteran, he knows the importance of honoring the sacrifice of those who paid the ultimate price for America’s freedoms.
“My father rarely speaks of his time in Vietnam,” Manuel said. “During this trip he really opened up about his deployment and the friends he had lost during the war. It helped me put in perspective why veterans always came to my own deployment send offs and welcome home ceremonies. They did it to ensure no Soldier, sailor, airman or Marine ever goes through the experience of what they had to go through when they returned from war.”
For more information on Honor Flights, visit www.honorflight.org.
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii. – As a fixture in the Oahu community and an important historical site, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam is a place that holds tremendous meaning to many people. It is the responsibility of those who live and work on the JBPHH to take care of and maintain the cleanliness of the installation – the organization “Love JBPHH” was organized with this in mind.
“‘Love JBPHH’ was assembled to take pride in the cleanliness and beautification of the historic joint base,” said JBPHH Culinary Specialist 1st Class Daniel Huerta. “The overall goal for this campaign is for all Sailors, Airmen, Guardians, and Civilians to come together, participate in a joint effort to clean and make our base and community better.”
The beautification campaign hosted its first cleanup event on September 23, with more than 250 individuals showing up to clean up trash on the Pearl Harbor side of the joint base. The volunteers focussed their efforts on debris throughout the main roads and parking lots, and amassed nearly three thousand pounds of trash.
“Base cleanups are important because they bring together different tenant commands within the base and service members from multiple branches to achieve the basic common goal of keeping the base clean and uphold its historic value,” said Huerta. “It also exhibits a sense of ownership of our base and housing communities to the Oahu Residents.”
In addition to ensuring the tidiness of the base, cleanups give people an opportunity to connect with one another and meet new people with a shared goal. For Karon Priebe, Pacific Air Forces Space Force key spouse, cleanups introduce her to new faces and creates a sense of togetherness.
“I get involved because I enjoy the camaraderie of these types of events; it’s a great way to meet new friends or bond with those in your unit,” said Priebe. “The beautification of the base is essential because it builds morale of all that set foot here.”
This mindset Priebe and others share about the upkeep and integrity of the installation is a mindset that extends beyond the gates of JBPHH. As mentioned, the base not only serves as an important historical landmark, but is also importantly situated geographically.
“In our short time in Hawaii we should strive to respect the land as it is a big part of Hawaiian culture,” Priebe said. “We are at the foot of the watershed and we should do everything we can to clean up the area we live and work in.”
“Love JBPHH” has planned for several additional cleanup events throughout the year, with the next scheduled for late November at the Makalapa Compound and on the Hickam side of the joint base in December.
WASHINGTON – Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Washington awarded a $21,734,000 firm-fixed-price contract to Grunley Construction Company Inc., Rockville, Md., for construction of the Joint Air Defense Operation Center (JADOC), Phase II, at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington, D.C.
The work to be performed provides for construction services to complete the JADOC permanent facility. JADOC’s command and control centers operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, relaying information about airspace and air defense around the National Capital Region. Established following 9/11, JADOC initially operated from multiple temporary locations. With this new facility, JADOC has consolidated functions into a permanent home and operates with state-of-the-art technologies.
Construction includes concrete slab-on-grade foundation with concrete spread footings under steel columns, structural steel frame, concrete masonry unit shear walls, and roofing system with sloping roof deck. Also includes pavements, all utilities, site improvements, passive force protection measures, security fencing, and diverse communication routing to eliminate single points of failure and ensure constant connectivity. Special construction requirements include controlled space in accordance with intelligence community standards and use of special exterior finishes to meet Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling’s architectural design requirements. The contract contains two unexercised options, which if exercised, would increase the cumulative contract value to $22,874,308.62.
The contract was awarded Sept. 28, 2022. All work will be performed at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington D.C., and is expected to be completed by October 2023.
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REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – The Army’s senior air defender and commanding general of U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command talked air and missile defense during the 2022 Air Defense Artillery Symposium.
Lt. Gen. Daniel L. Karbler, USASMDC commanding general, addressed the symposium at the U.S. Fires Center of Excellence at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Sept. 27, where this year’s theme is “ADA for Army 2030 – Enabling the Maneuver Commander.” The theme originates from Air Defense’s significant growth and modernization efforts to provide additional capability and capacity to the operational force.
“Everything we have to talk about has to start with a threat,” Karbler said. “Every theater where we have air and missile defense forces – deployed, forward-stationed or even here in the homeland – we face significant threats. From quad-copters to (intercontinental ballistic missiles); from low, slow unmanned aircraft systems to hypersonic missiles; from targeting individual combat vehicles to targeting strategic geopolitical assets or major U.S. population centers, we see the normalizing of the adversary’s use in testing ballistic missiles, hypersonic cruise missiles, rotary-wing, fixed-wing and UASs.”
Karbler said it is imperative to understand when and how adversaries will deploy their capabilities and how they will use them.
“We have to know the details. We have to know what is the target, what are they deploying them against, what is the order of battle and what are the quantities?” Karbler said.
Karbler said America’s ADA forces have experienced operations tempo challenges while remaining resilient.
“There is an element of passive defense that never gets discussed, and that is, frankly, the resiliency of people,” Karbler said. “The OPTEMPO challenge we are facing is not going away. We can’t modernize if today’s (private first class) isn’t tomorrow’s (platoon sergeant), and we can’t modernize if today’s (lieutenant) isn’t tomorrow’s (lieutenant colonel). We have to be able to recruit and retain our air defenders in order to meet the needs of the Army of 2030.
“Recognize and share the growth path that ADA is on,” he added. “Recognize and appreciate the multitude of future opportunities across a broad spectrum of ADA missions, positions and assignments you have in front of you. Then help us retain a healthy, growing and vibrant air and missile defense force.”
Karbler said that shaping and sharing of allied involvement in air defense capabilities is an area he has been tackling for a long time.
“The Missile Defense Review talks about the importance of sharing data with our allies. We can’t fight alone and we understand the necessity of integrating with our allies,” Karbler said. “From personal experience, sometimes I think the closer you get to the fight, integration happens more readily, quickly because they understand the threat is right here in our backyard and we need to stay coordinated.”
He also discussed the health of the force and the demand for air defense forces from combatant commands. Karbler said Army senior leaders value ADA Soldiers and recognize the sacrifices Soldiers and families make to retain readiness while still maintaining OPTEMPO.
“I am not going to be an OPTEMPO apologist,” Karbler said. “We have Soldiers in harm’s way and the adversary is shooting at them, and we have to keep them protected. That is why the charge is ‘how can we leverage technology and how can we be innovative in providing adequate coverage in our defense designs while still reducing the OPTEMPO?’”
Karbler said air defenders should be proud they are called on as the sole provider for protection on deployed forces.
“As leaders we should share that with our Soldiers. We should never take it for granted that they continue to respond to the call,” Karbler said. .We owe them some level of predictability and we owe them the understanding that what they are doing is important and appreciated. From the secretary of defense on down to Army senior leaders and senior leaders within the Department of Defense, It is not lost on them about what the air defense force is doing.”
Aerospace manufacturer Boeing has begun using 3D printing to ramp up its production of a Wideband Global SATCOM or ‘WGS’ satellite for the US Space Force.
Working as part of a $605 million contract, Boeing is in the process of building the US Space Force’s next-gen WGS-11+, a system with much greater mission support and anti-jamming capabilities than its predecessors. By introducing 3D printing into the comms satellite’s production workflow, the firm anticipates being able to drastically reduce the device’s lead time, from up to ten years down to just five.
“We’re moving at record-breaking speed to deliver the unmatched resilience, efficiency, and throughput WGS-11+ offers our warfighters,” said Col. Matt Spencer, Space Systems Command Geosynchronous Earth Orbit and Polar Division Senior Materiel Leader. “Boeing’s ability to rapidly integrate the latest commercial technology into our infrastructure gives us a competitive edge on the battlefield.”
3D printing flight-ready parts
As a multinational manufacturer with aircraft to build and maintain across a vast portfolio, Boeing is continually seeking out more efficient ways of achieving this. One of the barriers to deploying 3D printing in this area is the high level of regulatory clearance needed for the deployment of parts in end-use applications, but the firm has become increasingly adept at overcoming this with industry partners.
Working with EOS, for instance, the company has previously helped develop an aerospace-grade PEKK, designed specifically to meet the UV and flame retardancy standards set out in Federal Aviation Regulations, and more recently it has qualified Stratasys’ Antero 800NA filament as being flight-ready, as well as investigating the potential of sustainable titanium 3D printing powders alongside Titomic.
Boeing is also known to apply additive manufacturing within several areas of its own production workflow, including the build of its 777X jet, which is powered by GE9X engines with over 300 3D printed parts. Similarly, in collaboration with the US Air Force Research Laboratory and Thermwood, it’s said to have 3D printed aerospace autoclave tools capable of cost-effectively adapting to iteration.
When it comes to the manufacture of LEO devices, meanwhile, Boeing unveiled its plan to 3D print satellites back in 2017, and it has since launched the SES-15 system with over 50 additive manufactured components, and used the technology to produce everything from metal antennas to modular parts designed to expedite spacecraft production.
Improving US defense coordination
Since being contracted to do so in 2019, Boeing has been working flat-out to develop the US Space Force’s latest WGS system, the eleventh in a constellation designed to connect US, Canadian and Australian forces. Built to replace the older Defence Satellite Communications System setup, which is still used for military coordination, WGS devices are generally said to enable a much higher throughput.
Now, as part of its program, Boeing says it has managed to integrate some of the advances made via its 702X satellite R&D, to take these benefits to the next level. Built around the same phased array technology, the WGS-11+ is set to be capable of generating hundreds of electronically-steered beams at the same time, providing users with more than twice the mission capacity of existing WGS satellites.
What’s more, just like the 720X, each individual beam can be shaped and therefore tailored to the needs of a specific operation, meaning that US Space Force adopters stand to gain from improved mission flexibility and responsiveness, while the WGS-11+ can also use dual polarization to narrow beam widths as a means of protecting against interference.
To bring this vision for a revised satellite to life, Boeing met with the US Space Force late last year, at which point they completed a critical design review before entering its production phase. It was at this point that Boeing committed to using advanced manufacturing methods such as 3D printing in the system’s build, in a way that could yield significant cost and lead time benefits, while boosting its performance.
In fact, by serially additive manufacturing WGS-11+ parts in their thousands, in a move that’s reported to be a ten-fold increase on its previous satellites, the firm anticipates being able to reduce what’s usually a 7-10 year waiting time for large spacecraft down to just 5 years, and the finished system has now been penciled in for delivery in 2024.
“We’re printing more than a thousand parts for WGS-11+, giving us the capability to introduce customization in a way that improves system performance, without requiring extensive integration times or customized tooling,” adds Troy Dawson, Boeing’s VP of Government Satellite Systems. “We understand how important speed is to the mission. That production speed translates to effectiveness against threats.”
“As we continue to invest in our technology and processes, we know that a similarly capable satellite could be delivered even faster.”
3D printing signal-boosting satellites
Of course, Boeing is far from the only aerospace manufacturer that has turned to 3D printing in a bid to improve the lead times and end-performance of its satellites. Early in 2021, Airbus revealed that it had managed to integrate over 500 RF parts into Eutelsat’s Hotbird satellites such as switch assembly networks and multi-waveguide blocks, in a way that was said to improve their broadcasting capabilities.
Later in the year, Fleet Space also unveiled plans to launch its fully-3D printed ‘Alpha’ satellites in 2022. Built around the company’s advanced beamforming technology, which functions via an additive manufactured metal antenna array, the systems feature digital signal processing capabilities, designed to unlock greater user connectivity.
In terms of series production applications, Thales Alenia Space revealed that it was mass-manufacturing parts of its Spacebus NEO platform as long ago as 2019. The device was first fitted to the commercial Eutelsat KONNECT satellite, a craft built to deliver a faster broadband connection to areas of Western Europe and Africa.
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Featured image shows a render of what the WGS-11+ is expected to look like. Image via Boeing.
CHANTILLY, Va. — Top U.S. space officials this week said it’s likely Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will extend to space, predicting continued GPS jamming and spoofing and urging military and commercial space operators to be prepared for possible cyber attacks.
“Ensure that your systems are secure and that you’re watching them very closely because we know that the Russians are effective cyber actors,” National Reconnaissance Office Director Chris Scolese said Feb. 23 during a National Security Space Association conference in Chantilly, Va. “It’s hard to say how far their reach is going to go in order to achieve their objectives, but it’s better to be prepared than surprised.”
Reports from the Secure World Foundation and the Center for Strategic and International Studies document Russia’s use of non-kinetic disruptive space capabilities in Ukraine in recent years, including spoofing and jamming as well as cyber attacks.
“Russia places a high priority on integrating electronic warfare into military operations and has been investing heavily in modernizing this capability,” the Secure World Foundation said in its 2021 Global Counterspace Capabilities report. “Russia has a multitude of systems that can jam GPS receivers within a local area, potentially interfering with the guidance systems of unmanned aerial vehicles, guided missiles and precision guided munitions, but has no known capability to interfere with GPS satellites themselves using radio frequency interference.”
One such electronic warfare platform is the Tirada-2, which entered service in 2019. According to SWF, the system can reportedly performing uplink jamming on communication satellites. Another system, Bylina-MM, is being designed to “suppress the on-board transponders” of some communication satellites.
In its 2021 Space Threat Assessment, the Center for Strategic and International Studies noted that Russia’s arsenal of electronic counterspace capabilities include two radar jammers — Karushka-2 and Karushka-4 — which could interfere with radar reconnaissance satellites.
Scolese said this week it’s likely Russia will employ jamming and spoofing capabilities to some extent – though he noted it’s not clear how far it will go.
“I think it’s fair to assume that to the extent that they can and to the extent that they feel it won’t extend the conflict out of their control, that they will extend it into space,” he said. “You can imagine they’re already doing GPS jamming, for example, and doing things against Ukraine.”
Kinetic weapons
As for kinetic counterspace capabilities, Russia’s most recent demonstration of a direct-ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon in November created an estimated 1,500 pieces of debris. Speaking at the NSSA conference Feb. 23, Lt. Gen. Michael Guetlein, head of the Space Force’s acquisition command, said actions like the recent ASAT test reinforce Russia’s interest in denying space access to adversaries.
Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond has on multiple occasions referred to Russia’s July 2020 test of what he calls a “nesting doll” capability. The test — which CSIS said in its report was more sophisticated than some previous ASAT demonstrations — involved a Cosmos 2542 satellite that contained a smaller Cosmos 2543 space vehicle inside of it. During the 2020 test, the smaller satellite fired a projectile near another Russian satellite.
“This is further evidence of Russia’s continuing efforts to develop and test space-based systems, and consistent with the Kremlin’s published military doctrine to employ weapons that hold U.S. and allied space assets at risk,” Raymond said at the time.
CSIS notes in its report that Cosmos 2543 was very active after being released from its “mother satellite.”
“Before firing the projectile in July 2020, the inspector satellite was constantly changing its orbit to synchronize with other Russian satellites,” the report states. “This is out of the ordinary for most satellites, which rarely maneuver in this way.”
While not an on-orbit capability, Russia has also developed an aircraft called the Beriev A-60, which detects and tracks satellites with the intent of aiming laser beams at them, according to the SWF report. The aircraft has flown multiple times since 2010, and the country is reportedly installing a laser on it.
SPACECOM Support
U.S. Space Command head Gen. James Dickinson said this week that space units are currently playing a supporting role to U.S. European Command to ensure it has “the space effects necessary to respond and characterize the situation in Ukraine.
SPACECOM’s Joint Integrated Space Teams, which are made up of intelligence planners and space professionals, have been working closely with EUCOM to coordinate space capabilities and integrate them into the command’s planning activities.
Dickinson said one of his command’s supporting functions has been to provide battlespace awareness of the space domain and provide the missile warning and GPS-enabled tracking capabilities over EUCOM.
Scolese noted that the response of the space enterprise to the ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine is showing how integrated U.S. agencies are in providing key capabilities in a time of conflict.
“What we do in space and our technology and our partnerships are really coming to bear, and it’s going to show how we work together as a community to achieve some very significant objectives and to understand what’s going on in the world,” he said.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She previously covered the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force for Inside Defense.
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—The Space Force this week unveiled its new designs for service dress and workout uniforms as it continues to forge its own identity in the Pentagon.
Two guardians showed off the business uniform for the first time at the Air Force Association’s annual conference in Maryland, showcasing a unisex look that the Space Force initially devised for women before adjusting for men’s comfort as well.
The Space Force is the first military service created since women were given the opportunity to hold the same roles as men, making this the first uniform designed with women in mind from the start.
The uniform is “distinctive, modern, professional, and comfortable to wear,” Space Force spokesperson Col. Catie Hague said. “We designed the female uniform first and then we created the male version.”
Rather than the typical suit-style uniform that buttons in the middle, the Space Force’s preliminary design features a dark blue, wraparound jacket with diagonal buttons over a dress shirt and neckwear. White stripes around the wrists and grey pants complete the look.
Social media users likened it to Star Trek garb and bellhop uniforms.
The number six figures heavily in the design to represent the space service’s arrival as the sixth military branch, with six buttons, a six-sided name tag, and six-sided enlisted insignia that the Space Force revealed on Monday.
“The deep blue color was chosen from the Space Force seal. The dark color represents the vastness of outer space,” Hague said. “The buttons have the globe, delta, orbit and stars that are part of both the U.S. Space Force flag and the seal.”
Guardians have also started testing out a fresh physical training wardrobe.
The jacket, shirt and shorts are “designed for guardians to be physically ready to protect the U.S. and allied interests in space” and “developed to withstand the most grueling physical regimens,” Second Lt. Mahala Norris said in a video, adding that she’s helping to vet the clothing.
Norris — who became the first Department of the Air Force runner to earn a national championship title since 1964 when she won the NCAA’s 3,000-meter steeplechase race in June — appeared in the Space Force’s ad for the new physical training gear.
In keeping with the Space Force’s rule of sixes, it was only Norris’s sixth time racing in a steeplechase event when she won at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships — an event with 35 barriers and seven water pits. She placed 13th in the steeplechase finals at the U.S. Olympic trials.
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“I won at the collegiate level. Now it’s time to win for the Space Force,” she said. “Train hard, guardians.”
Hague said the service wants to finalize the uniform designs in the coming months, but it could be years before they’re widely available to any guardian who wants them.
Last year, the Space Force announced it would adopt operational camouflage pattern uniforms to match the Air Force and Army garb. Service members had until April 1, 2021, to adopt the new look.
Space Force officials have yet to offer a sneak peek at the service’s forthcoming formal mess dress uniforms.
WASHINGTON — As the U.S. Army looks to expand its sensor-to-shooter capabilities, a new agreement with the Space Force is meant to ensure cooperation between the two services and inform future joint architecture requirements.
The services signed a memorandum of agreement last month that, according to Army spokeswoman Caitlin O’Neill, will ensure future tactical space capabilities developed by the Army and intelligence community are integrated with the Space Force’s Title 10 functions.
“This agreement informs joint sensor and architecture requirements and future operational concepts of operation to provide direct access to soldiers in theater,” O’Neill told C4ISRNET.
The MOA follows a similar 2019 agreement between the Army and the intelligence community.
The Army last year approved rapid experimentation and prototyping for a new Tactical Space Layer, which will take advantage of commercial satellite imagery to improve battlespace awareness and expand its beyond-line-of-sight targeting capability.
Speaking during a Feb. 15 Executive Mosaic forum, the Army’s Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing/Space Cross-Functional Team Director Willie Nelson said the new MOA will ensure coordination between the Army and the Space Force as the Army continues to mature its Tactical Space Layer plans in a way that “synchronizes” with existing and future sensing and targeting capabilities.
Nelson noted that the Army expects to award multiple contracts over the next year to integrate commercial geospatial intelligence capabilities into the current Department of Defense architecture.
“Some of these contracts will focus on new and emerging electro-optical capabilities as well as new and emerging phenomenology such as radar hyperspectral and even radio frequency systems,” he said.
The Army has demonstrated its progress fusing sensor data during its first two Project Convergence exercises at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona — the first occurred in September 2020 and the second last fall. Nelson said the PC ‘21 demonstration reinforced that access to space-based sensors and in-theater tactical ground stations is “absolutely essential.”
“Sending data back to the continental United States for analysts to crunch through for hours and days and post finished products on websites won’t meet the needs to fight in a disconnected, degraded, interrupted and limited environment or meet our tactical timelines and responsiveness requirements,” he said. “It must be direct to commanders on the ground in the field.”
The demonstration pointed to the need for automated, high-quality and timely target recognition, noting that while a number of commercial imagery companies have made progress in this area in recent years, there’s still room for improvement.
More broadly, Nelson said, PC ‘21 highlighted the role space assets plan in a tactical battlefield environment.
“Space will continue to be a critical component in the sensor-to-shooter kill chain,” he said. “Keeping space assets prioritized and apportioned to tactical warfighting will be very, very important as we continue to press with these modernization efforts.”
Nelson added that the service is still developing its plans for PC ‘22, which will bring in allies and partners and continue to focus on integrating data from multiple platforms.
“When you fully integrate some of those and integrate the data exchange at speed, it’s just exciting to see the just entirely new capabilities that are able to either sense deeper, respond faster and work across the different domains more effectively,” he said.
WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman announced Tuesday they have selected payload providers for their respective segments of the Space Force’s Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared program.
Both companies are on contract to build a portion of the first block of Next-Gen OPIR satellites — Lockheed to develop three satellites based in geostationary orbit and Northrop two polar satellites destined for highly elliptical orbit. Next-Gen OPIR is the successor to today’s Space-Based Infrared System, which detects and tracks ballistic missiles.
Lockheed and Northrop both staged competitions for their satellites’ mission payloads. For the GEO segment, Lockheed chose Raytheon Technologies and a Northrop and Ball Aerospace team to develop payloads for the first two satellites and announced today that it has chosen Raytheon’s design for the third satellite. Northrop, which was also choosing between a polar payload it developed with Ball and a second built by Raytheon, selected its own team’s payload for the two polar satellites.
Lockheed in 2018 received a $2.9 billion development contract for the first three GEO satellites, followed by a $4.9 billion contract last year for manufacturing. The Space Force in 2020 awarded Northrop a $2.37 billion contract for the polar segment.
Joseph Rickers, Lockheed’s vice president for the Next-Gen OPIR GEO program, said in a press release Tuesday both teams are making good progress on their payloads.
“For this ‘Go-Fast’ program, both teams had to meet stringent schedule and performance requirements — which they’ve done,” Rickers said. “I want to thank both teams for their tireless work and we look forward to the first flights of both the mission payloads.”
Both GEO providers have completed critical design reviews and environmental testing and are expected to deliver their first payloads to Lockheed in 2023. The first GEO launch is scheduled for 2025.
Northrop’s Vice President for OPIR and Geospatial Systems Sarah Willoughby said in a release the team’s solution “combines Northrop Grumman’s proven experience in missile warning and defense with Ball Aerospace’s expertise in optical sensors and mission data processing.”
“Our team’s solution for NGP will assure continuous coverage of the northern hemisphere — especially the Arctic region — to protect against incoming threats,” Willoughby said.
Northrop and Ball will develop the two payloads at Northrop’s facility in Azusa, California.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She previously covered the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force for Inside Defense.
VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE — The Combined Space Operations Center (CSpOC) recently welcomed its first two inter-service transfer personnel, both of whom transitioned from the U.S. Army to the U.S. Space Force.
Technical Sgt. Justin Young and Sgt. Christopher Cameron joined the CSpOC’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance division in early 2022 and will begin their familiarization training in the coming weeks. They will be a part of a team of more than 17,000 Combined Force Space Component Command (CFSCC) personnel located across the nation who plan, task, direct, monitor, and assess the execution of combined and joint space operations for theater effects on behalf of the U.S. Space Command Commander, directly integrating with ongoing operations in other combatant commands.
“Both of these non-commissioned officers bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table,” said Maj. Gen. DeAnna Burt, CFSCC commander. “They’re not only going to help strengthen the CSpOC team and CFSCC’s support to U.S. Space Command and our allies and partners, but they’re also going to be at the forefront building up our U.S. Space Force culture.”
The U.S. Space Force was established on Dec. 20, 2019, and initially the only personnel to transfer into the new military branch were about 6,000 U.S. Air Force Airmen. Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023 are when the first inter-service transfers from the Army and Navy are scheduled to take place, and both Young and Cameron were part of the first tranche of Army transfers.
Young’s previous assignment was with the 1st battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), in Okinawa, Japan, where he worked as the geospatial/imagery intelligence non-commissioned officer in charge. He thinks his prior intelligence experience, specifically in space imagery, likely helped him in his selection to join the Space Force.
“I was ready to join the Space Force as soon as I could,” said Young. “I came to the Space force to understand more about space operations and contribute whatever I can to its benefit and defense.”
Cameron was a signals intelligence analyst during most of his 10-year career in the Army, although he says that most of his previous duties did not exactly match with his specialty. In fact, his last assignment as a command and control operator for the Multi-source Intelligence Ground System at Fort Carson, Colo., was the first exposure he had with working in the space field.
“In the Army, we don’t really go to school to specialize in space operations,” Cameron remarked. “It’s more based on you getting lucky and getting it as a duty assignment.”
Young and Cameron see how critical space is to both national security and to the daily lives of people throughout much of the world, and feel like they can really contribute to the fledgling service.
“I remember learning about how different cultures around the world would use space as a tool to determine direction and time in my college anthropology class,” said Young. “Now, I believe it’s even more fascinating that our actions in space enable us to look back down to the Earth and characterize the world we live in, whether it be deep learning AI using satellite imagery for crop health, tracking soil erosion, or looking at an image of nearly anything on demand.”
“Much of my 7-year career has been working with joint and multinational partners, and I’m very interested in applying it to space operations,” Young added. “It looks like the Space Force is focused on information sharing, and I am excited to be able to be a part of that.”
Cameron says he is curious to see how the Space Force plans unfold and he looks forward to being a part of that.
“By joining the Space Force early on, I think I’ll be able to shape the service while it’s still growing,” he said.