Training begins today at Schriever AFB, Colo. on Air Force Space Command’s most advanced payload—the Space Based Infrared System’s Highly Elliptical Orbit-1, launched last fall. According to an AFSPC release, the command has selected 10 airmen—crew commanders and crew chiefs first—to undergo the ground floor training for this new system. Among the advances of the SBIRS HEO-1 is its increased sensitivity, allowing operators to detect less visible missile launches and to more accurately locate them. It also allows operators to task the sensor to locate targets of opportunity.
The Space Force is playing midwife to a new ecosystem of commercial satellite constellations providing alternatives to the service’s own Global Positioning Service from much closer to the Earth, making their signals more accurate and harder to jam.