WASHINGTON — A ground station developed by Northrop Grumman for missile warning satellites has passed a preliminary design review, the corporate announced June 1.
The terminal, referred to as Relay Ground Station-Asia (RGS-A), was funded by the U.S. Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific under a five-year $99.6 million contract. Northrop Grumman is developing the bottom station in Boulder, Colorado, where the corporate last yr opened a 23,680-square-foot facility.
RGS-A will function a communications relay station to forward signals between different satellite networks that detect missile launches. It would allow Navy ballistic missile ships, for instance, to receive early warnings from existing infrared sensor satellites and from next-generation systems which have yet to be launched to orbit.
Ground station to be deployed in Guam
The completion of the design review “is the subsequent step in delivering much-needed latest capabilities to the Pacific region,” Aaron Dann, vp of strategic force programs at Northrop Grumman, said in an announcement.
NIWC Pacific ordered the bottom station to make sure users are capable of receive data from the present Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) satellites and the longer term Next-Generation Overhead Infrared constellation that can have a brand new ground system referred to as FORGE (Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution).
“A cornerstone of the FORGE architecture includes developing relay ground stations able to supporting existing and latest satellite constellations with the flexibility to handle changes in bandwidth and availability,” Dann said.
RGS-A is projected to have six antennas, and might be deployed in Guam in late 2025, in line with Northrop Grumman. The antennas might be remotely monitored and operated from the USA.
