Jay Clemens
Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Air Force have started to construct an S-band ground-based radar system at Kwajalein Atoll on the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Space Fence will replace the Air Force’s legacy space surveillance system to monitor objects in orbit and predict space-based collisions, Lockheed said Monday.
The Air Force awarded the $914.7 million Space Fence engineering and manufacturing contract to Lockheed in June 2014 and the company says the total contract value could reach $1.5 billion over eight years.
Steve Bruce, vice president for advanced systems at Lockheed’s mission systems and training business, said the space fence radar is scheduled to go online in 2018 to help the Air Force prevent the potential for collisions with the nation’s space-based infrastructure.
ANEC Foster Wheeler and General Dynamics are working with Lockheed to build Space Fence.
The Kwajalein installation also houses an on-site operations center and an annex to the island power plant.
