By Marina Malenic
Raytheon [RTN] has been awarded a $46 million, 25-month contract modification to make its missile early-warning Third-Generation Infrared Sensor (Three-GIRS) flight-ready.
“Under the modification we’ve been awarded, we’ll take the sensor developed in the first phase of our contract and upgrade it to full capability,” Doug Marimon, senior program manager for space systems, told Defense Daily in an Oct. 30 telephone interview.
Raytheon’s non-imaging infrared sensor is one of two developed under the Air Force’s Three-GIRS program, which was originally called the Alternate Infrared Satellite System. The other was built by SAIC [SAI] and is expected to be put onto orbit as a demonstrator aboard a commercial communications satellite next year.
Raytheon’s original 2006 development contract was for $54 million. Marimon noted that Three-GIRS was begun as an alternate to Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS), which has suffered from a string of setbacks since its 1996 inception.
Asked to contrast the cost of the two systems, Marimon said, while it would be an “apples to oranges” comparison, the Three-GIRS fundamental design is “much, much less expensive” than SBIRS.
The sensor will someday offer persistent-stare coverage for an entire hemisphere of the earth at a time.