USAF awarded Raytheon a $54 million contract Sept. 5 to construct and test a demonstration satellite with “a full-earth sharing sensor assembly” to provide a threshold missile warning capability and objectives of the Space-Based Infrared System satellite program. The company also is to provide “performance data” leading toward an Alternate Infrared Satellite System. Due date for the work is September 2008, with a final report three months later. The Air Force embarked on the AIRSS program to supplement or replace SBIRS, believing that technology has advanced so much since the start of SBIRS that the service could produce a “simpler design” with less technology risk.
The $4.26 billion Small Business Innovation Research contracting program widely used by the Air Force went into hibernation as the government shut down Oct. 1, but unless lawmakers strike a deal on reforms, the program could reach an abrupt end.
