MDA working with space community on hypersonic defense

July 11, 2018

Inside Defense:

The Missile Defense Agency is working to better integrate its sensors with those owned by the broader national security space community to track hypersonic missiles, according to an MDA official.

The agency has done “a lot of work already” on hypersonic defense, working with the space community, according to Rich Ritter, program executive for C4ISR at MDA. In particular, he said MDA is working to integrate an enterprise sensor network to track maneuvering, low-flying hypersonic weapons.

“A sensor is a sensor,” Ritter said at an event on Capitol Hill today hosted by the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance. “It doesn’t know whether it’s doing missile defense, technical intelligence, space situational awareness. It’s the application at the end that determines it.”

He said MDA is sharing data with others who own sensors in the national security space community.

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