The United States will soon have new sets of ‘Eyes in the Sky’ to
monitor specific Chinese military activities.
Raytheon Technologies has received an award valued at more than $250 million to design,
develop and deliver a seven-vehicle missile tracking satellite constellation, as well
as support launch and ground operations by the Space Development Agency or SDA.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how the US is building a special system
to monitor the Chinese military ? Let’s get into the details.
In 2021, satellite imagery that had been obtained by The New York Times pointed to China’s efforts
of constructing new silos at a site in a desert near the northwestern city of Yumen.
Matt Korda and Hans Kristensen from the Federation of American Scientists who first spotted the
development dubbed it “the most significant expansion of the Chinese nuclear arsenal ever.”
There are clear indications that China is on its way to
significantly enhancing its warhead and delivery capabilities in the coming days.
These developments have necessitated the need for a better monitoring framework.
The finance stems from a congressional funding
boost in the fiscal 2023 defense appropriations act.
The spending package, signed by President Joe Biden on Dec. 29,
included $250 million specifically designed to help Indo-Pacific Command keep tabs on Chinese
ballistic and hypersonic missile launches. The spending bill earmarked the new funds for
“INDOPACOM missile tracking demonstration expansion.”
A Space Development Agency
spokesperson stated, the new satellites will be integrated into SDA’s first operationally
capable set of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, called “Tranche 1,”
Tranche 1 will include both missile warning/tracking birds for the Tracking
Layer and data relay satellites for the Transport Layer of the agency’s planned
(and newly named) Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.
The SDA spokesperson said the agency in July 2022 awarded L3Harris and Northrop Grumman contracts
worth a total of $1.3 billion to develop the Tranche 1 Tracking Layer satellites,
with each company to build 14 satellites to be deployed in two different orbital planes.
Under SDA’s current schedule, launches of those satellites would begin in April 2025,
but the Raytheon birds will fly later in 2025.
The spokesperson added, “We are planning for these satellites to
launch around the end of calendar year 2025, after the other Tranche 1 space vehicles previously
on contract are launched. … This stands to reason because the other performers got an
earlier start to their Tranche 1 work (T1Tracking original contacts were announced in July 2022),”
Once deployed, the LEO constellation of networked satellites will become the fifth
plane of satellites providing missile warning and tracking for the US Department of Defense.
Viewers may note that Raytheon Technologies has been developing missile warning systems
for decades but Since acquiring Blue Canyon Technologies and SEAKR Engineering, Raytheon
Technologies has expanded its space payload and satellite bus capabilities and expertise,
becoming a leading provider of space systems to a growing number of programs.
Raytheon will leverage existing designs, available commercial products and common
components to reduce technical risk and speed delivery. The seven-vehicle satellite
constellation will feature Raytheon’s Wide Field of View overhead persistent infrared sensor,
Blue Canyon Technologies’ Saturn-class smallsat bus, and SEAKR Engineering’s electronics payload.
Dave Broadbent, president of Space and C2 at Raytheon Intelligence & Space, said,
“Developing a resilient and affordable proliferated satellite constellation
in low-Earth orbit will improve our ability to track emerging threats like hypersonic missiles.
Continuing to develop this architecture with SDA and our industry partners will
be a high priority for us in the coming months.”
The disputes between the United States and China are numerous and complex and
involve a wide range of economic, political, and strategic issues.
This includes differences in trade, technology, and security.
As per most experts, the question is no longer
‘if’ the US-China will engage in a conflict, but it’s ‘when’.
Over the last decades, the Communist Regime has worked to ramp up its military, the latest
defense budget for 2023 is set to grow by 7.2% US military leaders have pointed out that
China not bound by any arms control treaty has increased its stockpiles of missiles
severals folds and is working on state of art technologies like hypersonic weapons.
Given the situation, the US needs better situational
awareness of Chinese activities and the new ‘Eyes in the Sky’ will enable that.