Missile-warning ground stations garner Northrop Grumman $99.6 million contract from U.S. Navy
NewsApril 22, 2022
BOULDER, Colo. Northrop Grumman has won a contract worth $99.6 million from the U.S. Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific to provide mission-critical capabilities for Relay Ground Station-Asia (RGS-A) under which the company will design, develop, integrate, test, and deliver the first of the next-generation relay ground stations to support legacy and future missile-launch and missile-warning detection satellites.
Under the terms of the accord, NIWC Pacific will develop six antennas that will reside on the island of Guam for RGS-A to enable the Space Systems Command (SSC) Next Generation Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) Ground System to operate the legacy satellites in geosynchronous orbit. The antennas will be remotely monitored and operated from the U.S.
The RGS-A award, according to the news release from Northrop Grumman, is intended to help address the U.S. Space Force's mission to revolutionize existing missile-warning and missile-defense systems with the Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution (FORGE) system. One of the elements of the FORGE architecture is a group of relay ground stations that support existing and new satellite constellations and have the capability to handle changes in bandwidth and resiliency.
Most of the work for the five-year contract will take place at Northrop Grumman’s campus in Boulder