The Eastern Range, operated by the 45th Space Wing, Patrick AFB, Fla., is the beneficiary of a $40 million communications upgrade, courtesy of the Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles AFB, Calif. The new Post Detection Telemetry Subsystem digitizes, manages, and transports critical range safety and range user telemetry data to the Range Operations Control Center and to payload and launch vehicle customers, say SMC officials. The effort required two years of work, but officials say it transformed the once rigid legacy system into one that is customizable that “greatly reduces bandwidth requirements” and operational costs.
The Space Force revealed this week that it has space control weapons on orbit, but the head of U.S. Space Command said the U.S. still has “a long way to go” in improving its ability to detect and target threats in the domain.
