Northrop Grumman shipped the fourth Space Based Infrared System Highly Elliptical Orbit payload last month for integration with its hosting payload in preparation for eventual launch, officials announced on June 16. “HEO-4 will complete the replenishment of our polar missile warning capability, ensuring continuity of this critical operational capability” by replacing HEO-2, Space and Missile Systems Center Commander Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves. HEO-3, which replaced the earlier HEO-1 payload completed on-orbit checks last month. The hosted infrared scanning and staring sensors augment SBIRS’s two satellites in geosynchronous orbit, providing missile early warning coverage alongside Defense Support Program satellites. The HEO sensor specifically provides launch detection from northern latitudes, according to the release. Northrop Grumman was awarded a contract last year to eventually refresh the rest of the constellation, supplying the GEO-5 and GEO-6 satellites when the first two reach the end of their service lives.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Sept. 5 to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War, a move that has heightened the ongoing debate over the White House’s legal authorities and the role of the military in the world and at home.
