National Defense Magazine:

The U.S. Space Force has received the fifth satellite for its Space-Based Infrared System constellation.

In a December announcement, Lockheed Martin said that the company delivered the SBIRS GEO-5 missile-warning spacecraft to the service. The system is expected to launch in 2021, and the sixth satellite is slated for launch in 2022 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Tom McCormick, Lockheed Martin’s vice president for overhead persistent infrared systems, said the SBIRS GEO-5 is the first satellite in the constellation to be made with the company’s LM 2100 bus, which is the new upgraded common platform for the system. The company originally received the SBIRS contract in 2014, and then in 2015 reached an agreement to have future satellites equipped with the LM 2100 at no additional cost to the government, he noted…

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