A Raytheon Technologies subsidiary has secured a prime contract to develop a missile warning satellite prototype under a U.S. Space Force program focused on advancing the detection and tracking of missiles in medium Earth orbit.
Raytheon Intelligence & Space said Wednesday it will team up with Lockheed Martin to integrate its Missile Track Custody payload onto the latter’s mid-sized LM400 satellite bus.
RI&S will also develop a ground-based command and control system for the missile tracking prototype that will be based on its Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution Mission Data Processing Application Framework.
FORGE MDPAF is designed to collect and process data from USSF’s Space-Based Infrared System and Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared constellations.
RI&S and Boeing‘s Millennium Space Systems subsidiary received separate contracts to create digital models of sensor technology for the MTC program in May 2021.
Both companies’ mission payload designs passed critical design reviews in November 2022.