Missile Warning and Tracking

In support of Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, Northrop Grumman is a leader in the effort to rapidly field a global proliferated low-Earth orbit architecture of data transport and missile warning/missile tracking satellites and the powerful ground systems that stitch it all together. We are under contract to deliver 16 space vehicles as part of global constellation of infrared missile warning and missile tracking satellites. These satellites integrate with the Transport Layer’s low-latency meshed communication network — for which we are delivering 116 satellites — enabling conventional and advanced missile tracking from proliferated low-Earth orbit.

HBTSS will be a critical part of the multi-layered OPIR constellation of satellites. It will provide continuously updated high-quality tracks to handoff for targeting hypersonic threats. Responding to cues from the warning and custody layers, an HBTSS constellation will augment the existing OPIR network of sensors by providing high-precision target tracks to battle management and fire control systems, supporting intercept of advanced missile threats – including hypersonic glide vehicles.

Built by Northrop Grumman in support of the Missile Defense Agency, two demonstration Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) satellites successfully completed their missions and were retired in 2022. Launched in 2009 and expected to operate for four years, these demonstration satellites outlived their design life threshold three times over. Today, their achievements pave the way for future operational missile warning and tracking systems that will defend the nation.