Hypersonic and ballistic missile defense tech in development with L3Harris
NewsFebruary 04, 2021
MELBOURNE, Fla. L3Harris Technologies has won a $121 million U.S. Missile Defense Agency contract to build space flight hardware to demonstrate the company’s solution for the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) program.
HBTSS is one of several proposed missions within the Department of Defense’s next-generation proliferated low-Earth orbit space architecture. The program’s objective is to detect and track traditional and emerging missile threats using infrared sensors and advanced processing capability.
According to the company, the Missile Defense Agency awarded L3Harris a study contract in 2019 as the prior phase in this development program. L3Harris has also been competitively selected for two other layers of the missile warning and defense architecture.
In December 2020, the Space Development Agency selected L3Harris to build and launch four space vehicles to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles for launch in 2022. In April 2019, the U.S. Air Force selected L3Harris to design prototype payload and mission concepts for what has evolved into the U.S. Space Force’s medium-Earth orbit track custody demonstration, officials claim.
