The U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) layered approach
to stopping enemy missile attacks on America, its allies, and troops
in the field is primarily dependent on the military’s ability to detect,
track, discern, and report ballistic missiles in their boost, midcourse
and reentry phases of their flight.
A tricky problem made even more difficult by the use
of missile-launched midcourse decoys, this vital surveillance requirement
has recently been laid at the feet of a multicompany design and development
effort (see MAT, Vol. Issue 1) called the Space-Based Infrared System-Low
(SBIRS Low).
As envisioned by team members TRW—which heads the group—Spectrum
Astro, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, SBIRS Low is a globe-girdling,
low-earth orbit (110-300 miles high) “constellation” of satellites (24-30)
capable of profiling and tracking ballistic missiles throughout their
course. Because of this planned three-phase capability, SBIRS Low,
unlike ground- and sea-based elements of the nation’s emerging Ballistic
Missile Defense System (BDMS), will be able to fully track missile launches
throughout their most vulnerable midcourse state. And, in contrast to
these “corridor-of-attack”-dependent ground- and sea-based systems,
SBIRS Low is designed to operate worldwide on a 24/7 basis. A follow-on,
companion program—SBIRS High—will be configured to detect ballistic
missile launches in their launch phase.
Equipped with infrared sensors, SBIRS Low satellites
are designed to provide missile warning, booster track and typing, post-boost
vehicle tracking, midcourse re-entry vehicle and penetration-aid tracking,
target discrimination and missile-kill assessment. With a pedigree that
goes back to the original Strategic Defense Initiative, the SBIRS Low
program was experiencing funding uncertainties as recently as March,
but in April MDA announced a restructuring of the program that made
TRW the industry team-leader. And in August MDA redefined the contract
as a “capabilities-based” acquisition program that would exploit hardware
developed in an earlier Flight Development System (FDS) phase of the
program.
In essence a systems management term for good old American
ingenuity and improvisation, capabilities management—and its cognate,
“spiral development”—has been characterized by Undersecretary of Defense
for Acquisition Pete Aldridge as “… similar to pre-planned product
improvement, but…focused on providing the warfighter with an initial
capability which may be less than the full requirement, as a trade-off
for earlier delivery, agility, affordability, and risk reduction.”
SBIRS New
In its latest iteration the revamped space-based sensor
program embodies two key priorities of MDA’s capabilities-based acquisition
approach:
- Leverage of existing capabilities for “proof of principle.”
Using two largely completed FDS satellite buses—developed by TRW—and
Raytheon-developed FDS infrared sensor payloads, the restructured
program builds on existing capabilities to lower the technical risk
and enable an early deployment of a space-based missile tracking system.
- Integration of SBIRS Low into the Ballistic Missile
Defense System (BMDS) test bed (the test infrastructure of the overall
system). The test bed is designed to allow the assessment of assorted
ballistic missile defense system elements alone and in concert with
other assets as part of the layered missile defense architecture.
In accordance, then, with the capabilities-based concept,
performance of the restructured SBIRS Low in these two areas should
lead to recommendations for new technology insertions into future satellites
and continued development of capabilities for the entire system.
Referring to this revamped program while echoing Aldridge’s
view about capabilities management, General Howell M. Estes III (ret.),
former commander in chief of the North American Aerospace Defense Command
(NORAD) and the U.S. Space Command, has said, “The restructured SBIRS
Low contract provides a smart approach to system development. It effectively
balances the need to provide a near-term low cost, low-risk quick proof-of-principle
demonstration in support of a layered approach to missile defense.”
Such “proof-of-principle” will take place under the
first phase of the restructured program, which began in August and extends
to 2008. Here, the launching of SBIRS Low satellites in 2006 and 2007
will demonstrate the system’s satellite-based missile-tracking capabilities.
In subsequent cycles, spiral development of evolving technologies will
be explored to permit the integration of improvements for increased
warfighter capabilities.
Accordingly, the objectives of the revised SBIRS Low
program are:
- Demonstrate the system’s space-based, infrared tracking
and discrimination capabilities for the BMDS
- Provide generic space-based “eyes and ears”—infrared
sensing and communications links—to support various BMDS test activities
- Develop a systems architecture that provides a low-risk
path for evolving space-based infrared sensing hardware/software capabilities
based on evolving threats and fosters integrating those capabilities
into the BMDS. The SBIRS Low ground segment will likewise undergo
a capabilities-based evolution.
Fused Talent, MIRV’d Responsibilities
The MDA’s restructuring of the SBIRS Low program brought
to a close the previous Program Definition and Risk Reduction phase
and ushered in the program’s research and development phase. Under it,
previously competing corporate teams have been integrated to focus trans-company
talent on the problem of solving the technical challenges to satellite-based
missile tracking.
TRW, as prime, has responsibility and accountability
for system design, mission performance, contractor team performance,
and integration with the BMDS test bed—and, initially will work closely
with the U.S. Air Force’s system program office. Later, it will work
increasingly with MDA’s national teams and the space sensor technical
community to ensure that SBIRS Low capitalizes on advances in missile
defense technology and is responsive to evolving threats. Spectrum Astro,
for its part, will play a key role in spacecraft development; and Raytheon
and Northrop Grumman will develop sensor payloads under competitive
subcontracts. Accordingly, the restructured contract avoids cost duplication
in the areas of program management, systems engineering and ground station
development while maintaining a continuing competition for the highest
risk areas.
MDA, however, retains Total System Performance Responsibility
(TSPR) and participates shoulder-to-shoulder in reviewing key contractor
decisions. It has responsibility and accountability for the overall
program direction and success, and will evaluate combinations of complementary
sensor and weapons alternatives to assess the overall benefit to an
integrated, layered BMDS. The MDA also monitors cost, schedule and contractor
performance; assesses risk of each of the major program elements; and
evaluates items such as technology-maturing and basing modes.
Significantly, the SBIRS Low program cycles will evolve
in alignment with those of the overall BMDS Test Bed.
“The capability of the satellites and ground system
will increase with each cycle as technology matures, as BMDS technical
objectives and goals evolve, and as we gain experience from ongoing
satellite design, manufacture, and test,” explained Paul Borzcik, TRW
vice president and manager of the SBIRS Low Program. “In this way, SBIRS
Low’s integrated system capabilities will grow in parallel with those
of an evolving, integrated BMDS.“
Ignition, Liftoff
Initially, SBIRS Low research and development will
focus on three areas: core engineering and management, including the
preparation of design reviews for Cycle 1 satellites; Cycle 1 activities,
such as exercising hardware from the FDS phase and the development of
a satellite ground operations center; and spiral development-intensive
Cycle 2 activities. Major tasks to be completed include development
of the integrated space and ground segment architecture; Cycle 1 assembly,
integration, launch and test of a two-satellite constellation in the
2006/2007 timeframe; and development of Cycle 2-and-beyond space, ground
and communications capabilities in support of future BMDS blocks.
“Our focus at this stage is on acquiring and evolving
what’s achievable with managed risk,” Borzcik said. “Part of that risk-mitigation
involves the use of already demonstrated capabilities and technologies.
The FDS satellite bus and the Raytheon-built IR [infrared] sensor payloads
have both undergone extensive testing. Flights number 1 and number 2
will enable us to demonstrate sensor performance in orbit and the ‘hand-off’
of missile tracking from one SBIRS Low satellite to another.”
Leveraging this vision, SBIRS Low is designed to develop
successive space vehicles with diverse payloads that integrate into
a single protective constellation. The program’s immediate task, however,
is to place an initial capability in orbit and to integrate space-based
missile tracking into the BMDS architecture.
In the final analysis, however, the program is also
designed to demonstrate how—with hardware developed during the program’s
FDS phase—capabilities-based development can unfold in a critical U.S.
missile-defense program.
Mr. Caruana is Vice President, Missile Defense
for TRW
