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WASHINGTON: The first sensor launched as part of a new generation of U.S. missile warning satellites being developed by Lockheed Martin Corp., has begun delivering data, the U.S. Air Force said on Friday.
Lockheed is prime contractor for the $10.6 billion Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS), and Northrop Grumman Corp. built the first sensor aboard a classified satellite that is rotating the Earth in highly elliptical orbit (HEO).
The program faced cancellation last year for cost overruns, but officials said it was doing better now after a major restructuring announced last December. The success of the first HEO sensor marked a key milestone, officials said.
SBIRS has three main elements, a ground system, launched in 2001, two big satellites that parallel the equator, and a pair of polar-orbiting sensors positioned on classified satellites.
The air force said the performance of the Northrop sensors was “meeting or exceeding all specified mission requirements” and would be certified as fully operational by summer 2008.
Gen. Kevin Chilton, who commands Air Force Space Command, told reporters the first images delivered by the Northrop infrared sensors were “truly exciting,” allowing military leaders to see a good portion of the Earth.”
“SBIRS presents a new era of global surveillance with the ability to detect and report events that were previously beyond our capabilities, providing greatly improved support to our combatant commanders,” he said in a statement.
Top Pentagon officials this week reviewed the overall SBIRS program, which was initially slated to cost just $3 billion to $4 billion, and the meeting went “very well,” Lt. Gen. Michael Hamel, head of Air Force space acquisitions told a Los Angeles press conference made available on teleconference.
“I think we're making very good progress,” Hamel said.
Chilton said Pentagon acquisitions chief Ken Krieg and other officials reviewed progress on two satellites that will orbit the Earth in geosynchronous orbit (GEO) and their design was validated by the success of the Northrop sensor.
The positive review bodes well for the Lockheed-Northrop contracting team, which is trying to convince Krieg to let it build a third GEO satellite, rather than proceeding with alternative sensors being designed by Raytheon Co and Science Applications International Corp.
Tom Greer, spokesman for Lockheed, said the contractor team was continuing to hit major milestones and the first GEO satellite was on track for launch in late 2008.
