L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) has been awarded a $121 million U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) 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 (DoD) next-generation, proliferated, LEO space architecture. The program’s objective is to detect and track traditional and emerging missile threats using infrared sensors and advanced processing capability.
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 of 2020, the Space Development Agency (SDA) 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.
“Our near-peer adversaries are making rapid advancements in missile technologies, posing a threat to our forward-deployed forces, allies and nation,” said Ed Zoiss, President, L3Harris Space and Airborne Systems. “L3Harris is leveraging our long-standing expertise in infrared remote sensing, advanced processing and communications, in addition to our recent wins in responsive space missions, to enable the Missile Defense Agency to quickly field significantly more capable and cost-effective mission solutions to address these threats.”
A video presentation of this mission by the MDA is available for viewing at this direct infolink…