The Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin [LMT] a $30 million contract to begin concept development for Space Fence, a system of land-based S-Band radars and supporting operations centers that will detect and report on objects and debris orbiting the Earth.
June 30, Lockheed Martin was one of three industry teams to receive contracts.
The Air Force Materiel Command’s Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom AFB, Mass., leads the procurement for Space Fence, which is intended to significantly enhance space situational awareness as legacy systems in the Space Surveillance Network (SSN) are retired.
Under the contract, a Lockheed Martin-led industry team will perform prototyping, design, trade studies and analysis of potential system configurations, concluding with a system design review and final prototyping demonstration.
The contract also includes site and facility surveys, and planning and development of net-centric approaches to integrate with the existing architecture of the SSN. The remaining effort–through preliminary design review, system development, deployment and follow-on support — will be the subject of future competitive procurements. The new system’s Initial Operational Capability is scheduled for 2015.
The Lockheed Martin-led team, which includes General Dynamics [GD], AT&T [ATT] and AMEC, has decades of collective experience in space-related programs including sensors, mission-processing, cataloging, orbital mechanics, net-centric communications and facilities.
“The ability to detect and to track smaller objects in space will significantly improve mission support for U.S. Air Force space operations in an increasingly complex domain,” Linda Haines, Space Fence Program Manager for the Air Force Materiel Command, said in a statement.
Carl Bannar, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s radar business headquartered in Syracuse, N.Y., said: “Space Fence will provide a fully-integrated, net- centric radar ‘system of systems’ that will allow information to be shared on the Global Information Grid with space operators across the community.”