General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced that it was awarded a contract from Lockheed Martin Space to deliver missile warning, tracking, and defense payloads to support the company’s recently announced contract award to deliver 18 satellites for the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tranche 2 Tracking Layer Program. 

GA-EMS is developing the Electro Optical and Infrared (EO/IR) sensor systems which include the 16 Wide-Field-of-View (WFOV) Missile Warning/Missile Tracking infrared payloads and two Fire Control/Missile Defense (FC/MD) infrared payloads for integration into the Lockheed Martin satellites scheduled for launch in 2027.  

“We are proud to be a part of Lockheed Martin Space’s team supporting the Tranche 2 Tracking Layer program mission,” said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. “We look forward to our payloads becoming an integral element of a satellite constellation providing significant military operational support for the detection and tracking of advanced and conventional missile threats, including hypersonic missile systems. The team’s Tranche 2 satellite solution represents a significant step forward in delivering real-time global missile warning, tracking, and defense capabilities to the warfighter.”

GA-EMS’ missile warning/tracking payloads and fire control/missile defense payloads, which incorporate on-orbit mission data processing, deliver missile tracks in real-time and will be integrated into the Lockheed Martin satellites. The satellites will be launched into low Earth orbit (LEO) to be incorporated into SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture LEO constellation to provide persistent worldwide real-time missile detection and tracking capabilities.

“GA-EMS’ dedicated optical sensor team specializes in the design and deployment of compact, high-performance, and affordable EO/IR sensor system solutions, that are ideally suited for this next-generation in missile tracking payloads” said Dr. Steven Wein, senior director of GA-EMS Optical Sensor Systems. “Our in-house, end-to-end payload systems’ expertise is key to our ability to rapidly innovate and deliver these cost-effective, highly advanced solutions critical to our national security interests. The missile warning, tracking, and defense payloads add to our expanding portfolio of high-performance surveillance and sensing assets, including our compact, 16 spectral band EO/IR weather sensors for the U.S.Space Force’s EO/IR Weather System (EWS) satellite program.”

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