Raytheon awarded $107 million contract for Space Fence preliminary design

Raytheon Company has been awarded a $107 million US Air Force contract to further the design of the Space Fence system.

Under this contract, Raytheon will deliver a preliminary design and test a functional radar prototype to ensure cost and schedule certainty and technical maturity of the final design in support of Milestone B.

"As the amount of debris in space continues to rise, the ability to detect smaller and smaller objects with more affordable, ground-based sensors becomes increasingly urgent," said Dave Gulla, vice president, National & Theater Security Programs for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems.

"Leveraging our vast heritage in radar development, combined with our latest technological advancements, the Raytheon Space Fence solution provides the Air Force with an affordable and much-needed, increased space situational awareness capability for many years to come."

The work performed during this phase continues to reduce total program risk through the development of a preliminary design with mature technologies that meet or exceed Technology Readiness Level 6 and Manufacturing Readiness Level 6. In addition, a functional radar prototype, with hardware and software components representative of the technology in the final design, will demonstrate the maturity of these critical technologies.

"We look forward to continuing our partnership with the Air Force and identifying areas of opportunity to increase affordability and eliminate risk from the program," said Scott Spence, program director, Space Fence program for Raytheon IDS.

This contract is the second phase of a multiphase acquisition program, leading to the delivery of up to three, globally positioned, S-band radars operating in the US Space Surveillance Network. Space Fence is a modern, net-centric sensor capable of detecting more and much-smaller objects in low earth orbit and medium earth orbit to provide greater completeness, accuracy, and timeliness to meet warfighter space situational awareness requirements.

Source: Raytheon