Northrop Grumman’s TRKT3 will build on the Tracking Layer capabilities of Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 with targeted technology enhancements, expanded coverage and increased integration including precision fire-control sensing. (Photo Credit: Northrop Grumman)
The Tranche 3 tracking layer will comprise 72 satellites to provide near-continuous global coverage, with half featuring payloads able to create fire-control data.
The new units — known as System Deltas — will consolidate Space Systems Command program offices for missile warning and space-based sensing and targeting.
United States Space Force General Stephen N. Whiting speaks during a hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee at the Hart Senate Office Building on February 29, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The efforts include operationalizing a nascent data-fusion pilot effort and supporting research and development of on-orbit maneuverability technologies.
Located in the Mission Control Station at Buckley Space Force Base, Colorado, the Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) Battlespace Awareness Center (OBAC) provides near-real-time OPIR data exploitation products that deliver situational awareness to Space Delta 4 operators and other users. (Space Force photo)
Space Systems Command expects to continue delivering new capabilities for the Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution (FORGE) on a yearly basis, according to the program's executive officer.
An Area-I Air-Launched, Tube-Integrated, Unmanned System, or ALTIUS, is launched from a UH-60 Black Hawk at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., March 4, 2020. (Courtesy photo provided by Yuma Proving Ground)
Space Systems Command dropped RTX from the Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking — MEO program in May due to cost growth, schedule slips and design challenges.
The plan highlights the DOD’s embrace of proliferated low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite architectures, which officials view as more resilient than the larger, more expensive spacecraft that currently…
