Space-sensor program at Missile Defense Agency taps four firms for prototype development
NewsNovember 01, 2019
WASHINGTON. The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has chosen four companies to design space sensors that can track hypersonic and ballistic missiles. Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Leidos, and L3Harris each received a $20 million contract to design a prototype sensor payload by the deadline of October 31, 2020.
The contract awards come nearly a year after the U.S. government's Missile Defense Review, which called for deployment of space sensors to monitor, detect, and track advanced, maneuvering hypersonic glide vehicles from anywhere on the globe. According to wording in this review, space sensors “enjoy a measure of flexibility of movement that is unimpeded by the constraints that geographic limitations impose on terrestrial sensors, and can provide ‘birth to death’ tracking that is extremely advantageous.”
Work under the contract will be performed, the MDA announced, in California and Indiana.
