Mike Gruss
Space News:
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Missile Defense Agency, which for years has failed to win funding for an operational constellation of missile tracking satellites, now envisions a partnership with the U.S. Air Force on a system that would also perform space surveillance, a top service priority, an MDA official said.
Richard Ritter, the MDA’s program executive for C4ISR — command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance — also confirmed that the agency has awarded a contract to a satellite operator to host sensors that would help determine whether a missile has been successfully intercepted and destroyed. He declined to identify the operator — industry sources suspect it is Iridium Communications, which plans to begin launching a next-generation constellation of 72 low-orbiting satellites in 2016 — but said the MDA expects to spend about $100 million on the Spacebased Kill Assessment Project.
Ritter said the firm-fixed price contract was awarded on a sole-source basis and includes 20 to 22 hosted sensors.
