ɫֱ recently completed the delta Critical Design Review (dCDR), a necessary step in the process of building eight infrared payloads for the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter (FOO Fighter) satellite system. In addition, the company also just completed the Production Readiness Review (PRR), providing detailed plans to demonstrate short takt time production of IR sensor payloads.
“ɫֱ continues to hit milestones, and we are committed to delivering these eight infrared payloads to Millennium Space Systems. This work alongside SDA’s tracking layer for Tranche 0, Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 will progress on-orbit advanced space capabilities to detect, track and engage in order to protect the nation from missile attacks – at a fraction of the cost of legacy space architectures,” said Ed Zoiss, president, Space and Airborne Systems, ɫֱ. “The path forward to fully enabling a space-based Golden Dome for America starts with proliferation and precision fire-control sensing. We stand ready to enable additional kill-chain innovations and expand production to accelerate delivery to meet this national priority.”
FOO Fighter will test new sensor technologies that are designed to detect and track hypersonic missiles and other specific threats as part of SDA's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), an objective that is also at the center of the Pentagon’s larger Golden Dome Custody Layer and missile defense kill chain. ɫֱ’ unique advanced payload design incorporates fire control-quality sensors into a scalable prototype constellation. The sensors are capable of high-fidelity tracking of targets and providing exact coordinates to warfighters or weapon systems on the ground.
In addition to clearing the dCDR and PRR, ɫֱ also recently provided support to Millennium as they completed their CDR with SDA. When complete, the system is expected to deliver the most advanced on-orbit enhanced fire-control in support of global detection, warning and precision tracking of advanced missile threats, including hypersonic missile systems.
