US Air Force to work with Raytheon on missile warning architecture

Land February 3, 2020

The US Air Force has awarded a contract to Raytheon to improve its missile warning procedures with a new system based on data from sensors.

The new missile warning system will use data from sensors to create a comprehensive picture of launches under Raytheon’s five-year contract with the US Air Force. Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services has developed a completely open framework — which the Air Force calls the Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution (FORGE) Mission Data Processing Application Framework (MDPAF) — that will be capable of processing Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) satellite data from both the US Air Force’s evolving Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) constellation and the future Next Gen OPIR constellation, as well as be capable of processing data from other civil and environmental sensors.

Typically, companies would develop a system that collects and exploits data from specific types of satellites or sensors. FORGE changes this model as it’s able to collect data from nearly any type of satellite or sensor, and then helps operators make sense of that data quickly.

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President of Raytheon IIS, David Wajsgras, said: “The U.S. government’s global satellite network produces a constant flood of data — petabytes and petabytes of it every day. The Air Force wants to open that network up so they can use as much of that data as possible. That’s a huge transformation not just for the service, but for the whole government.”

“Essentially, this is a smartphone model. We’ve built an operating system that everyone can build applications for – from Raytheon to the Air Force to universities to small companies. These applications allow the system to process specific types of data.”

Raytheon also incorporated its deep experience developing applications using DevSecOps and Agile software development processes to dramatically speed development. Raytheon will work with the Air Force over the upcoming years to further evolve and prove the framework’s capabilities.

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contract infrared missile Raytheon satellite US Air Force US Government