The Space Force has awarded 20 contracts worth up to $3.2 billion to 12 companies since last year to develop space-based interceptor capabilities, Space Systems Command announced April 24, providing new details on the firms involved and the scope of their work.
space-based interceptors
The Defense Innovation Unit, the Pentagon’s commercial technology hub, plans to demonstrate low-cost, commercially derived missile defense sensors on orbit within the next two years, according to a new notice to industry.
The Pentagon’s Golden Dome Director said Jan. 23 his top priorities for the advanced homeland missile defense shield over the next two years are establishing a baseline command-and-control capability and integrating interceptors into that system.
The Space Force is requesting prototype proposals for space-based interceptors that can destroy a missile during the midcourse phase of flight, on top of its previous efforts to develop interceptors that take down missiles in their boost phase.
The Space Force has awarded initial prototype contracts to multiple firms to develop space-based interceptors designed to take down missile threats within minutes after launch.
Satellite manufacturer Apex announced it would launch a space-based interceptor demonstration next summer—the latest company to unveil plans to prototype technology that could contribute to the Pentagon’s Golden Dome missile defense project.
Industry proposals were initially due Oct. 10, but after a flurry of responses, the agency extended the deadline to Oct. 16. MDA received more than 1,500 questions from companies over the last three weeks, it said in an Oct. 2 memo.
Industry executives poised to compete for the Pentagon’s behemoth homeland missile defense initiative, Golden Dome, said the biggest risk to the project’s success is not technical but bureaucratic in nature.
Freshly installed as the direct reporting program manager for the Golden Dome missile defense project, Gen. Michael A. Guetlein said July 22 that his first line of effort will be to create a command-and-control network—and argued that the space-based interceptors envisioned for the project are ...
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Lawmakers in Congress are working to inject tens of billions of dollars into President Donald Trump’s ambitious “Golden Dome” plan for comprehensive missile defense of the U.S. homeland in the coming months.
Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman offered a vote of confidence in the ability of America’s defense base to produce space-based missile interceptors.