By Marina Malenic
Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Raytheon [RTN] have submitted proposals for the next phase of Space Fence, a next-generation tracking radar that will monitor objects in space, executives at both companies said yesterday.
John Morse, director of Lockheed Martin’s Space Fence program, said he delivered his company’s bid yesterday, and Raytheon program manager Scott Spence said his company’s proposal would be turned over to the Air Force this morning.
The United States operates a worldwide network of ground radars for tracking objects in space, but the country’s ability to track objects orbiting over the Southern hemisphere is quite limited. The legacy system is called the Air Force Space Surveillance System and comprises three Very High Frequency radar transmission sites and six receive sites spread across the southern United States. It has been in service since the early 1960s.
In recent years, the lower orbits around Earth have become much more congested, and events like the 2009 collision of an Iridium communications satellite with a Russian satellite have resulted in more “space junk” on orbit that can be hazardous to satellites. The Air Force wants the new Space Fence to increase the number of objects it can track in low Earth orbit from around 20,000 objects today to 200,000 or more.
The air service has been studying options for replacing the VHF system for the past four years. Last year, it awarded $30 million contracts to Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman [NOC] to conduct studies and prototyping.
Northrop Grumman’s contract was terminated early this year after Congress cut $30 million from the program’s funding in Fiscal 2010. According to Air Force spokesman Charles Paone, the program executive office agreed with the program manager’s recommendation to maintain the planned schedule by stopping funding for one of the three contractors rather than spreading the cut across all three, thereby delaying the program by six months or more.
Nonetheless, the competitive prototyping early in the development has paid off, according to industry program managers. Spence call the program a “shining example of the competitive prototyping strategy.”
“The ability to identify and burn risk down in this phase of the program is very important so that performance will be assured when it comes time for deployment,” he said during a telephone interview yesterday.
Morse also applauded the competition, saying that the model is “well-designed to burn down risk and help the Air Force get their arms around cost.”
For the next phase of the program, the Air Force plans to award up to two preliminary design review contracts worth up to a total of $214 million. Industry sources told Defense Daily that both Raytheon and Lockheed Martin are expected to receive contracts.
During the following 18 months, the selected contractors will develop system designs, radar performance analyses and prototypes. In 2012, a separate production contract award is expected to lead to final system development, fielding and full operational capability.
The new system’s initial operational capability is scheduled for 2015. All phases of the development and procurement program are expected to cost approximately $3.5 billion, according to budget documents.
Meanwhile, the U.S. and Australian defense chiefs earlier this month signed a pact in Melbourne for cooperation on space situational awareness activities, which could include placing U.S. radars in Australia. On Nov. 8, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Defense Minister Stephen Smith signed a statement of principles that their governments will “work together in the spirit of cooperation on the space situational awareness partnership for the mutual benefit of our countries’ national security.”
“Australia and the United States will investigate the potential for jointly establishing and operating space situational awareness facilities in Australia to support the United States space surveillance network and to support the development of Australia’s space situational awareness and mission assurance capability,” reads the document, which was posted on the Australian ministry’s web site.
The United States plans to deploy two or three radars as part of the Space Fence. While the legacy radar is located entirely inside the continental United States, the next- generation system will likely be located entirely outside the country. The goal is to increase coverage over the southern hemisphere.
In addition to Australia, the Pentagon is considering sites on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean and Ascension Island in the Atlantic Ocean, Paone said.
“The Air Force has not made a final decision on where to locate the Space Fence radars,” he said via e-mail. “This decision is currently in staffing with [Air Force Space Command],
with the official decision expected at the [Defense Secretary] level in the next year.”