Jane Edwards
Raytheon has expressed interest to help the Defense Department meet its weather monitoring needs with its sensor system, SpaceNews reported Monday.
Wallis Laughrey, vice president of Raytheon’s space systems segment, told the publication at the Space Symposium that the company is in talks with the U.S. Air Force and DoD about the capability of its Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite sensor to address weather forecasting requirements.
VIIRS is one of the instruments aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s first Joint Polar Satellite System, NOAA-20, that launched in November 2017.
The Air Force sought information in November 2017 on potential sources of electro-optical infrared imagers in support of the Weather System Follow-On EO/IR program – WSF-E.
The report said the service also collaborates with DoD’s operationally responsive space office to field a small satellite by 2022 as a potential replacement to the Defense Meteorological Satellite-19 platform.
