Raytheon Co. has been awarded a $107 M US Air Force contract to further the design of the Space Fence system. Under this contract, Raytheon will deliver a preliminary design and test a functional radar prototype to ensure cost and schedule certainty and technical maturity of the final design in support of Milestone B.


“As the amount of debris in space continues to rise, the ability to detect smaller and smaller objects with more affordable, ground-based sensors becomes increasingly urgent,” said Dave Gulla, Vice President, National & Theater Security Programs for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. “Leveraging our vast heritage in radar development, combined with our latest technological advancements, the Raytheon Space Fence solution provides the Air Force with an affordable and much-needed, increased space situational awareness capability for many years to come.”

The work performed during this phase continues to reduce total program risk through the development of a preliminary design, with mature technologies, that meet or exceed Technology Readiness Level 6 and Manufacturing Readiness Level 6. In addition, a functional radar prototype, with hardware and software components representative of the technology in the final design, will demonstrate the maturity of these critical technologies.