Lockheed Martin has tasked Northrop Grumman to provide sensor payloads for the fifth and sixth geosynchronous Earth orbit satellites in the U.S. Air Force‘s Space Based Infrared System under a $422 million subcontract.
“Northrop Grumman looks forward to joining our partner and prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, to produce the GEO-5/6 IR payloads,” Anne Ostroff, vice president of Northrop’s military and civil space and ground business, said Wednesday.
SBIRS works to detect enemy ballistic missile launches, provide corresponding early warnings and gather infrared surveillance data for situational awareness and other tactical intelligence and missile defense functions.
Northrop is the payload provider on the SBIRS team led by the remote systems directorate of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center.