However, these still sparked doubt within congress. Mike Gallagher, a Republic member of the US House Armed Services Committee, warns that this testing should “serve as a call to action.”
Now, the Senate is creating an action plan against this.
“Russia and China have been developing and testing hypersonic glide vehicles — these advanced missiles that are extremely maneuverable,” Tournear told Pentagon reporters Monday. “These satellites are specifically designed to go after that next generation version of threats out there so that we can detect and track these hypersonic maneuvering vehicles and predict their impact point.”
Congress approved the budget in response to the rising concerns in the Indo-Pacific region. Tournear reports that the US has not sent any hypersonic satellites that could be considered a threat. The US military has yet to design a system detecting these missiles since hypersonic weapons travel beyond Mach 5 (or about 3,800 mph).
Tournear admits, “we have limited capability to do the tracking aspect.”
The whole program is expected to create a dent in US capability to create a more efficient tracking for external threats. This system will supposedly have overlapping modes of monitoring. So rather than relying on a larger, more expensive satellite, the new system is expected to have a collection of smaller, cheaper satellites that are more efficient.
Older satellites are more expensive and usually stay in orbit for about 15 years or more. However, with the new satellite tracking program, the cheaper satellites have lower maintenance costs and can even be replaced every five years.
The satellites are expected to be launched at a lower orbit of 1,000 kilometers. The second set of satellites will be launched at medium orbit (10,000 to 20,000 kilometers) to create interlocking stability. They will likely start with launching 28 missiles, then follow with 34 more.
The contracts were awarded to Northrop Grumman Strategic Space Systems and L3Harris Technologies. L3Harris was assigned to produce 14 satellites at about $700, while Northrop is set to make 14 at the cost of about $617 million.
L3Harris is a long-standing government contractor who developed the AVCATT (Aviation Combined Arms Tactical Trainer), the StingRay, Hailstorm phone trackers, and the OpenSky wireless communication system.
On the other hand, Northrop is known as one of NASA’s top contractors, with projects that include the OmegA rocket (next generation launch vehicles for space travel) and NASA’s Gateway Habitation Module.
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