Flexible, Affordable Tracking of Hypersonic and Ballistic Missile Threats

Northrop Grumman has been selected as one of four awardees for the Phase IIa Prototype Payload Design and Signal-chain Processing Demonstration of the US Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) programme, the company announced on 2 December.

The 12-month HBTSS Phase IIa programme will demonstrate payload design for a proposed satellite constellation to detect and track hypersonic and advanced missile threats. Phase IIa retires technical risk through the demonstration of critical technologies required to track advanced weapons like hypersonic missiles from space.

The award continues Northrop Grumman’s longstanding partnership with the MDA and broader space and missile defence community in solving critical national security challenges. The company will demonstrate its agile and affordable approach to producing space-based sensors in large quantities for proliferated, global operations.

“We are a leading technology company that has for decades been supporting the space and missile defense missions of our government customers,” said Kenneth Todorov, Vice President, Missile Defense Solutions. “HBTSS is an important undertaking that allows us to see advanced threats like hypersonic missiles in ways we haven’t been able to before. If you can see the threats, you can take them out […] Through the HBTSS program, we’re leveraging our broad base of talent and technology to develop an affordable and extensible solution for this critical component of our nation’s missile defense system.” Northrop Grumman is building Phase IIa based on concepts developed in Phase I.