Northrop Grumman and Ball Aerospace will design and develop the two mission payloads for the Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared Polar program.
By Daniel Patrascu,
Published by Autoevolution, 16 December 2024
If a hostile nation from across the world would want to hit the US with a missile of some sort fast and decisively, then it’ll likely give it a trajectory that heads over the northern polar region. That’s because, given the nature of our globe and America’s position on it, that’s the shortest route possible. And it’s also one of the most difficult to monitor with the satellites currently in space.
The US knows this, and it already has a few cards up its sleeve to counter such a possibility. One of them is the Space-Based Infrared Systems (SBIRS) Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) network of satellites and associated systems. The network was introduced at the start of last decade, and served its purpose well until now.
Chances are it will do so over the next decade as well, but it will eventually have to be replaced with something more capable and more in tune with the current technological advancements in missile technology.
That something new is called the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared Polar (NGP), and it is the work of defense contractor Northrop Grumman. It’s a fairly advanced project, as earlier in the summer, it completed the Ground Critical Design Review and Program Critical Integration Review.
The effort now moves deeper into Phase 2, as awarded by the US Space Force’s Space Systems Command, and its results should be on deck to succeed the SBIRS in the coming years – that’s because the current contract covers the manufacturing, assembly, testing, and ultimately the launch of two NGP satellites.
The tech is considered a “key element in strategic missile warning for our nation’s defense” that will be capable, thanks to a series of new and better sensors, of having a round-the-clock look at all the airspace of the northern hemisphere, looking for potential threats heading America’s way.
The NGPs are, essentially, satellites, and they’ll be placed in a highly elliptical orbit and they’ll be capable of staying operational even in “contested scenarios.” From up there (exact distance from Earth is not disclosed), the satellites will be capable of pinpointing missiles by going after their infrared heat signatures.
Once a target is detected, the relevant information is relayed to ground stations by means of the “unprecedented wideband” integrated communications system, so that the relevant factors can decide what to do about the threat.
Perhaps as important as the thing mentioned above is the fact that these new satellites have been designed in such a way as to evolve and be able to respond to new and more advanced tech. That should make them usable for longer periods of time, generally simply by updating and adapting the algorithms that allow them to perform their duties.
See: Original Article
