Officially activated July 10, the “system deltas” (SYDs) include one for missile warning and tracking, and another for space-based sensing and targeting. According to the service, the new structure reorganizes part of SSC’s acquisition efforts to focus on a key mission area instead of a functional specialty such as cyber or intelligence.

“SYDs consolidate SSC program offices that design, develop and deliver mission systems under a force design structure for acquisitions,” the Space Force said in a statement. “The SYDs will ensure mission area analysis is continuous and improves upon mission advocacy with a singular focus on mission sets, unity of effort and properly aligned accountability.”

The move follows a similar restructuring done by Space Operations Command (SpOC) — the service’s arm for conducting daily operations — in 2024, when it stood up a new unit structure known as the integrated mission delta (IMD). Like SSC’s system deltas, SpOC’s integrated units consolidate the personnel, training and sustainment functions for a single mission area under one unit.

To ensure there are no gaps between the Space Force’s procurement programs and the service’s operational requirements, the acquisition-focused system deltas will team up with their corresponding integrated mission delta under SpOC moving forward.

“Through unity of effort, the Space Force’s system delta framework allows us to streamline the work between acquisitions and operations accomplished through intimate collaboration with our mission delta counterparts across the field commands,” SSC Commander Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant said in a statement. 

The new System Delta 84 for missile warning and tracking will be led by Col. Stevie Medeiros and partnered with SpOC’s Mission Delta 4, the service noted in a press release. The unit will be responsible for developing and delivering a number of programs — such as the Resilient Missile Warning and Missile Tracking – MEO (MEO MW/MT) effort — that can detect and respond to emerging missile threats, like hypersonic weapons.

Space Delta 810 will oversee space-based sensing and targeting, comprising portfolios that provide environmental monitoring and tactical sensing to warfighters during mission planning and execution, according to the Space Force. It will be led by Col. Dane Bannach and work with SpOC’s Mission Delta 2.

With the activation of the two system deltas, Garrant said in a statement that the Space Force is already working to transition more of SSC’s acquisition deltas into system deltas “in the coming months.”

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Speaking during his keynote speech at Space Symposium on Tuesday, Spacecom Commander Gen. Stephen Whiting outlined ongoing initiatives to deter and defeat adversaries. The efforts are framed by the combatant command’s new “elements of victory,” and include moves to operationalize new capabilities, develop new technologies and draft two new strategies — one focused on experimentation and another on AI and machine learning.

“Over the past year at U.S. Space Command, we’ve developed elements of victory: our best military judgement for what we think we need to win in a conflict,” Whiting said. “These five elements of victory are informed by lessons learned in other domains — from the best thinking across our Joint Force, exercises and modeling and simulation — and they tell us what we need for war-winning advantage and how we will win.”

Part of the initiative focuses on getting new capabilities for warfighters across Spacecom’s different mission areas. For example, Whiting said the command is working to operationalize a data-fusion system that can create a single common operating picture for missile warning and missile defense missions.

Announced last year as a pilot program to improve data-fusion capabilities, the effort looked to address Spacecom’s ability to digest and view space domain data from multiple systems on a single screen. Since initiating the program, the command has focused on developing a data integration layer for missile warning and missile defense systems and is now demonstrating the capability, Whiting noted.

“Now we’re moving forward with operationalizing this system and placing it on our [Joint Operations Center] floor,” he said. “In the coming months, we’ll be adding additional missions to that program.”

At the same time, Spacecom continues to support research and development of technologies to enable what it calls “dynamic space operations” — or the ability to quickly and continuously maneuver systems on-orbit in order to address emerging threats in that domain.

While the command has repeatedly stressed the need for more maneuverable satellites, the Space Force has put only small amounts of money into research for the capability — and whether or not that funding will continue in future years remains up in the air. Whiting stressed, however, that development of space maneuver capabilities is imperative for Spacecom, especially given recent advancements in China’s ability to freely move their on-orbit satellites. 

To support development, the command will co-sponsor an effort with SpaceWERX — the Space Force’s technology innovation arm — that focuses on sustained space maneuver, according to Whiting.

“We will soon be identifying 10 proposals for $1.9 million each in funding over a 15-month period of performance,” he said. “This effort will continue to invest in the most promising technology from commercial industry to help us solve the sustained space maneuver challenge, so we can bring this joint function to the space domain.”

Other Spacecom initiatives include the deployment of an additional next-generation mobile radar for space domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific; working with organizations across the Pentagon to field more agile command-and-control capabilities; and meeting new demands for offensive and defensive space control.

Along with additional technologies, Whiting said Spacecom is drafting two new strategies that will help the command better prepare for conflict in space. 

“To ensure we maximize our readiness for day-to-day operations so that we are ready for conflict, we are operationalizing the command’s first-ever experimentation strategy and artificial intelligence and machine learning strategy,” Whiting said. He added that the priorities for these strategies focus on space fires, operational space command and control, missile defeat effects, enhanced battlespace awareness, cyber defenses and the command’s business processes.

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The new ground system, known as Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution (FORGE), is being designed to conduct daily operations and command and control for the Space Force’s Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-Gen OPIR) constellation, as well as those in the legacy Space-Based Infrared System.

Space Systems Command has already fielded the first key component in the FORGE architecture to operators, and now plans to deliver additional upgrades to the system at least once a year, Col. Rob Davis, PEO for space sensing at SSC, said Tuesday.

“We’re going to continue to deliver not in a big-bang software way, but in more of an agile way. It could be a couple times a year or could be once a year,” Davis told reporters during a roundtable at the annual AFA Warfare Symposium.

After facing developmental woes due to the architecture’s complexity, the command divided FORGE into four separate programs: FORGE framework, FORGE Mission Data Processing Application Framework, FORGE C2 and Relay Ground Stations. The program also includes the Next-Gen Interim Operations effort to create a transition command-and-control solution in the interim.

In April 2024, SSC delivered the Forge framework to the OPIR Battlespace Awareness Center. The technology is operational at the 2nd, 8th and 11th Space Warning Squadrons, as well as the 64th Cyberspace Squadron. The system includes new hardware, computers and an operating system that increases cyber resiliency and offers “enhanced mission applications” for operators, according to the service.

“Why did we do that? One, incremental delivery can bring some things out as we continue down the delivery pipeline. But most importantly was to take advantage of the enhancements in cybersecurity and resiliency that it brings by having that [FORGE framework] there, that was built from the ground up in modern software and cybersecurity practices to bring that resiliency to the ops floor,” Davis said.

Moving forward, Davis said the Space Force expects to deliver the data processing framework — under development by RTX — sometime this summer. The service will then work to field FORGE C2, which is being developed by BAE Systems after the company received a $151 million contract for phase two of the effort on Monday.

Davis emphasized that once all of FORGE’s components are delivered, SSC will continue to upgrade the architecture so that it has the most advanced capabilities.

“We’re always going to be shoulder to shoulder with our operations brothers and sisters, enhancing the system against the threats and keeping the agile software development going to make sure we’re keeping pace with the enemy,” he said.

The new delivery model is helping SSC ensure FORGE — or at least critical parts of it — is delivered on time to support the Space Force’s upcoming missile warning and missile-tracking constellations. In 2023, a report from the Government Accountability Office found that key pieces of the FORGE system were at risk of not being ready until after 2025.

The first two Next-Gen OPIR satellites are slated to launch into geosynchronous orbit sometime in 2026. To make sure there are no delays in operationalizing the sats, FORGE’s Next-Gen Interim Operations component will provide an interim ground segment capability that will eventually transition into the larger FORGE program, Davis said.

“That was necessary for developmental timelines as a risk mitigation, so that we weren’t trying to depend too much on FORGE and setting ourselves up for a challenge there,” he noted.

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The organization’s aircraft survivability equipment (ASE) initiative has a number of efforts underway aimed at developing a suite of sensors and countermeasure systems to protect platforms currently in the inventory as well as those that are in the works, such as the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA). Col. Brock Zimmerman, program manager for ASE, said many of the new programs are being designed to detect and defeat adversary capabilities at much longer ranges than the Army’s current systems.

“We’ve seen a dramatic change in the threat landscape. There’s threats out there that we didn’t think about 15 years ago, now with [unmanned aerial vehicles] and things like that — non-standard types of activities that some of our adversaries are conducting,” Zimmerman told DefenseScoop during an interview on the sidelines of the annual AUSA conference. “We’ve got to be able to see and detect further out, and that’s what we’re doing. Everything that we do is … threat driven.”

One program under ASE that aims to help the Army sense farther into the battlefield is the Improved Threat Detection System (ITDS), a next-generation missile warning sensor that will be integrated across the service’s aviation fleet. The infrared sensor suite will enable soldiers to detect and classify threats, as well as cue appropriate kinetic or non-kinetic countermeasure systems — such as the new laser-based Common Infrared Countermeasure (CIRCM) — to defeat them.

ITDS is intended to replace the Army’s legacy Common Missile Warning System, which has reached its limits in terms of how far it can sense enemy capabilities, Zimmerman said. 

After hosting a handful of companies at Aberdeen Proving Ground for “sensor rodeo” demonstrations to test potential solutions, the ASE office awarded Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin an other transaction agreement (OTA) in July for phase 1 of ITDS.

The program’s OTA is only authorized for a two-year work period as the Army works to approve a finalized requirement for ITDS, Zimmerman noted. The two vendors will conduct a technology demonstration that will allow the department to evaluate the effectiveness and maturity of the two solutions, after which the service hopes to move forward with a single solution.

“We’re waiting on that requirement to get finalized so that we can go back and possibly do a Middle Tier Acquisition, where I would think we would downselect … based off what we’re seeing for the first two years with Lockheed and Northrop,” Zimmerman said.

While running its own modernization efforts, ASE is also keeping a close eye on Army Aviation’s development of launched effects, Zimmerman noted. The small, unmanned drones are designed to be deployed from both manned aircraft and ground-based launchers, and the service is currently experimenting with a variety of sizes that offer different ranges.

For aircraft survivability, having sufficient range from launched effects will be imperative, Zimmerman said.

“There’s so many countries that are using capability [and] we can’t even see it. That’s what we’re trying to do, to be able to see further and detect further,” he said. “So whatever comes from [Army Aviation] will be a game changer — not only for fixed wing aircraft, but for helicopters too.”

Moving forward, however, the ASE office is bracing for possible challenges in receiving adequate funding for all of its programs. The fiscal crunch is being felt across the entire Defense Department, as competing priorities and repeated continuing resolutions from Congress in recent years have put several efforts in jeopardy.

In the face of financial constraints, Zimmerman said his office is trying to think outside the box in how it addresses budgetary challenges and manages its money.

“If they changed our Army procurement objective numbers, how can we kind of recolor our money to take care of our own bills that we had presented to the Army, and then change that flavor of money to something else?” he said. That could entail taking funds allocated for another program’s research and development and putting it towards ITDS.

The program office is also working closely with both the aviation and the ground communities to determine what sensors and countermeasure capabilities are most needed, and how they can be fielded in an efficient way, he said.

“Since we’re in this fiscal constraint, we can’t put everything on every aircraft,” Zimmerman said. “I think that’s where the aviation enterprise comes in, and we’ve got to work together to figure out what exactly that looks like, what’s in the realm of possible to do that holistic survivability or layered defense approach.”

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According to a recent notice to industry posted on Sam.gov, SDA intends to release the first draft solicitations for Tranche 3 of the PWSA’s tracking and transport layers in early 2025. Those satellites — slated to begin launching in 2028 — are expected to provide advancements in capabilities from previous tranches, as well as feature new warfighting applications.

An SDA spokesperson confirmed that approximately 200 satellites will make up Tranche 3 of the PWSA. The constellation is being developed and fielded in batches or “tranches,” and it’s expected to eventually comprise hundreds of space vehicles in low-Earth orbit that carry critical technologies for data transport and missile defense missions.

The Tranche 3 transport layer is being divided into three separate variants — Upsilon, Sigma and Lambda — that each have slightly different capabilities, the same strategy SDA used to develop transport satellites for Tranche 2’s transport layer. The agency expects to issue up to two awards for each variant, according to the notice.

A draft solicitation for the Upsilon variant is slated be published in early 2025, and those for the Sigma and Lambda variants are to be released in the spring and summer of 2025, respectively. The final solicitation for the Upsilon and Sigma variants are anticipated to be released during the third quarter of fiscal 2025, followed by the final Lambda solicitation in the fourth quarter of FY ’25.

Because solicitations are still being finalized, the agency could not provide details as to what specific capabilities will be in each variant. However, the notice stated that Tranche 3 transport satellites will support “the advancement of the PWSA’s Tracking capabilities by adding capacity and robustness to the global mesh network.” 

SDA will also build out the PWSA’s ability to conduct position, navigation and timing (PNT) in Tranche 3, according to the notice. While transport satellites in the first and second batches are expected to deliver initial PNT capabilities, the third tranche will feature enhancements in time transfer and ranging technologies, the SDA spokesperson told DefenseScoop.

As for the Tranche 3 tracking layer, the agency plans to release a draft solicitation in the spring of 2025 and the final version in the summer, according to the notice. SDA previously published a request for information in July that sought industry feedback on its plans for the third tracking layer, which will include systems that are equipped with infrared sensors and able to provide warfighters with fire control-quality data.

At the same time, the notice indicated that SDA is considering development of a PWSA Enterprise Ground effort, although it didn’t provide specific details or timelines for when solicitations might be published.

The notice to industry for Tranche 3 came after the agency decided to adjust its acquisition strategy for the PWSA to allow more time for vendors to build their platforms. In September, SDA Director Derek Tournear said previous contracts required industry to have systems ready to launch within two-and-a-half years of the contract date, but the agency has since extended that to three years.

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Space Systems Command (SSC) dropped Raytheon from the Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking — MEO (MEO MW/MT) program in May due to significant cost growth, slips in launch schedule and unresolved design challenges experienced by the company. Raytheon was originally contracted in 2021 to build three space vehicles for the missile-warning constellation’s first batch of satellites, known as Epoch 1.

As SSC prepares to launch the remaining Epoch 1 systems and receives proposals for the subsequent Epoch 2 space vehicles, officials are exploring how to make up for the capability lost by dropping Raytheon from the contract, Col. Rob Davis, PEO for the command’s space sensing directorate, said Wednesday during a media roundtable at AFA’s Air, Space and Cyber conference.

“We have plans to go ahead and make sure we don’t have a loss of capability in Epoch 1. We expect to have equivalent capabilities in the requirements being satisfied with Epoch 1,” Davis said. “Flowing into Epoch 2, that [request for proposals] is on the street. We’re tracking that, eagerly waiting to get those back and seeing where that takes us to finish out the initial warfighting capability of that constellation.”

The MEO MW/MT constellation is being developed to track high-speed missiles from medium-Earth orbit (MEO) as part of the Space Force’s plans to build a resilient architecture of missile warning and missile-tracking satellites across multiple orbits.

SSC is leveraging a spiral development model for the program by developing and fielding the systems in “epochs” that each deliver incremental capability — similar to the strategy used by the Space Development Agency for its Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). The intent is to have the MEO MW/MT constellation work with the PWSA birds in low-Earth orbit and other satellites in higher orbits to track advanced missile threats from space.

Boeing subsidiary Millennium Space Systems was also contracted in 2021 to build six satellites for the constellation. Later in 2023, L3Harris received an award to complete sensor payload design for Epoch 1. SSC expects to launch the six Epoch 1 vehicles — which will provide initial missile-warning capability — by 2027.

Bob Fitzpatrick, vice president of requirements and capabilities at Raytheon, told DefenseScoop that moving forward, the company is able to carry the development work it did on Epoch 1 into its proposal for future phases of the MEO MW/MT program.

“We actually worked hand in hand with [SSC] to really develop a good point to kind of bring it to closure, because we saw how much it was going to do for our business but equally for what they wanted to do,” Fitzpatrick said Tuesday on the sidelines of the AFA conference. “It actually turned out to be very positive for both of us, and we are now looking at leveraging that technology for the Epoch 2 series.”

In August, SSC released a request for prototype proposals for development and procurement of up to 18 space vehicles for Epoch 2. The satellites will build upon the Epoch 1 birds and be able to track advanced hypersonic and ballistic missile threats, according to the solicitation.

Davis noted that the Epoch 2 platforms will carry “in-plane, vendor-specific crosslinks,” meaning the space vehicles will only be able to share data and communicate with those made by the same company located in MEO. Once the contracts are awarded, it’s possible SSC will look into an additional crosslink to advance the technology.

“From a tech maturation [standpoint], we’re really looking to Epoch 3 to have that technology ready to support where we really want to get to — that point where we’re meshing between vendors,” Davis said.

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The company received a design contract worth nearly $29 million from Space Systems Command (SSC) to develop prototypes for Epoch 1 of the Resilient Missile Warning and Missile Tracking MEO effort, the service announced Monday. L3Harris will join Millennium Space Systems, a Boeing subsidiary, and Raytheon Technologies, both of which received initial contracts for the program in 2021, in the program’s first phase.

“Adding a third vendor reduces risk and non-recurring engineering not only for Epoch 1, but for future Epochs as well,” Col. Heather Bogstie, senior materiel leader of SSC’s resilient missile warning, tracking and defense (MWTD) acquisition delta, said in a statement. “Having another payload option opens the trade space and allows us to take advantage of all industry has to offer as we deliver high-quality capability to the warfighter.”

The contract awarded to L3Harris is a one-year other transaction agreement, under which the company will design a sensor payload for the program. Space Systems Command will have the option to buy up to three payloads and satellites from L3Harris following a successful completion of the design program.

According to its budget request for fiscal 2024, the Space Force intends to buy three satellites from Raytheon and six from Millenium for Epoch 1.

The service plans to begin launching the first satellites sometime in fiscal 2026, and hopes to deliver satellites every three years in subsequent Epochs “incrementally building capability and robustness over time,” according to a SSC release.

The future satellites are part of a larger effort in the Space Force to create a missile warning and missile-tracking architecture that is better suited to detect and track dim or high-speed objects, such as hypersonic missiles that can fly faster than Mach 5 and are highly maneuverable.

To meet new threats, the Pentagon plans to shift focus away from launching satellites in higher orbital regimes and instead proliferate satellites in low- and medium-Earth orbits. The Space Development Agency is planning to begin launching its first “mission capable” missile warning and missile tracking satellites into low-Earth orbit in April 2025 — a constellation that L3Harris is also contracted for. The company received $700 million from the agency in 2022 to build a 14-vehicle satellite constellation for low-Earth orbit.

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According to a recently published pre-solicitation notice, MDA officials intend to issue a solicitation to buy services and capabilities to drive the making of this envisioned “integrated, layered Missile Defense System (MDS)” in the near future — and are therefore looking for companies interested in providing “expert, independent advice, assessment, assistance, documentation, and recommendations regarding strategic, technical, programmatic, operational, policy, and organizational matters.”

“The government intends to hold additional one-on-one meetings with industry covering [this Agency, Advisory and Analytical (A3)] solicitation,” the pre-solicitation notes.

Those meetings will occur via teleconference and be limited to 30 minutes. The agency “prefers to meet with prime offerors only,” MDA officials wrote in the fresh notice.   

Businesses have until Dec. 12 to put in their requests to schedule a meeting with the agency.

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The plan highlights the DOD’s embrace of proliferated low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite architectures, which officials view as more resilient against adversary attacks or other disruptions than the larger, more expensive spacecraft that currently reside in GEO.

“The path that the Space Force is marching towards is that we won’t rely on those [GEO missile warning satellites] in the future,” SDA Director Derek Tournear said during a media roundtable at the Air and Space Forces Association’s Air, Space and Cyber conference.

The department still intends to deploy the remainder of the geostationary missile warning and missile tracking spacecraft that are under contract, he said.

“We’ll launch the current round of programs, but the future will all be proliferated LEO with a semi-proliferated MEO [medium-Earth orbit architecture] to give you that resilience,” he said.

The last of the planned geostationary missile warning satellites are slated to be launched before the end of the decade, and they will have a lifecycle of about 15 years, according to Tournear. Those systems will remain part of the missile warning architecture until they are completely phased out in the 2040s, he said.

When they reach the end of their lifecycles “we’ll do away with the GEOs and the big, exquisite, expensive satellites. But we will have this proliferated layer at LEO and MEO that provide missile warning, missile tracking, and then also what we call the fire control from the LEO layer,” he said.

However, there will be a transition period when the geostationary systems are still online and the new LEO-MEO architecture is being put into place.

“The reason there’s that period of a shift, right, is because this is a no-fail mission that the U.S. is relying on the Space Force to provide. So we want to have that overlap … We want to make sure we have a firm handle and make sure that the LEO-MEO layer are working before we let go” of the GEO systems, Tournear said.

The Space Development Agency is leading the charge for the Defense Department on acquiring tranches of low-Earth orbit systems for missile tracking as well as data transport.

Pentagon officials have grown more concerned in recent years about adversaries’ development of highly maneuverable missiles such as hypersonic weapons and cruise missiles. LEO systems are expected to provide more tracking capability to deal with these types of evolving threats.

“As you get lower, right, you have more sensitivity, so … you can start to detect things that you would not — you weren’t as able to detect and track from GEO,” Tournear said.

Geostationary architectures were originally designed to essentially do launch detection, he noted. In the past, missile flight paths could be more easily predicted based on traditional ballistic missile trajectory equations. However, many of today’s missiles have much more maneuverability and fly at different trajectories, and therefore a better tracking capability is needed.

“There’s very few missiles that rely on just ballistic trajectories,” Tournear said. “When they’re maneuvering, they’re not as bright as when they’re launching, and so you need to have more sensitivity [from satellite-based sensors]. And obviously the closer you get to the source, the easier it is to detect a lower sensitivity value. And so that’s why not only do you get the resilience [with LEO satellite architectures], but you … get that better sensitivity, the ability to track maneuvering targets.”

However, Tournear noted that the Pentagon isn’t moving away from GEO architectures for all mission sets.

“I don’t want to intimate that the department is getting completely out of the GEO business, because there’s a lot of other missions that are very efficient to do from GEO and we will continue to do there. There’s certain comm missions we’ll continue to do from GEO. As the department moves up more into cislunar space, GEO is a key aspect of that,” he noted.

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