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USA Moves Ahead with Next-Generation “Space Fence” Tracking

Mar 22, 2012 11:12 EDT
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Latest updates: Space Fence beginning to track orbiting objects; GAO report.

Space Fence
Space Fence:
Mission Control Concept
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Space is big. Objects in space are very dangerous to each other. Countries that intend to launch objects into space need to know what’s out there, in order to avoid disasters like the 2009 collision of 2 orbital satellites. All they need to do is track many thousands of man-made space objects, traveling at about 9 times the speed of a bullet, and residing in a search area that’s 220,000 times the volume of Earth’s oceans.

The US Air Force Materiel Command’s Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts leads the procurement for the USA’s Space Fence, which is intended to improve space situational awareness as legacy systems in the Space Surveillance Network (SSN) are retired. With a total anticipated value of around $6.1 billion over its lifetime, Space Fence will deliver a system of 2-3 geographically dispersed ground-based radars to provide timely assessment of space objects, events, and debris. Failure is not an option…

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Space Fence: Background

Space Fence concept
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The Space Fence program will provide a radar system operating in the S-band frequency range to replace the Air Force Space Surveillance System (AFSSS) VHF “Fence” radar that currently performs detection of orbiting space objects. The Space Fence will have a modern, net-centric architecture that is capable of detecting much smaller objects in low/medium Earth orbit (LEO/MEO). It was slated to go live by 2015, but current GAO reports believe this will be 2017 at the earliest.

In 1980, there were 5,396 total objects to track. In 2010, there were 15,639. Space Fence is expected to grow that set very quickly, because the higher wave frequency of the new Space Fence radars will allow for the detection of much smaller microsatellites and debris than the current systems allow. At the same time, global political and technology trends are accelerating the absolute number of these objects in space.

The current AFSSS is also known as a “fence” because several transmitters and receivers create a narrow, continent-wide planar energy field in space. There are currently 9 AFSSS sites (3 transmitter, 6 receiver), located on a path across the southern United States from Georgia to California along the 33rd parallel. Energy emitted from the transmitter sites forms a fixed position, very narrow, fan shaped beam in the north-south direction extending across the continental United States in the east-west direction. One or more of the receiver sites receives energy reflected from objects penetrating the beam.

LEO clutter
LEO clutter concept
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The new Space Fence system would reduce the number of sites to 2 or 3. John Morse, Space Fence Program Manager, Lockheed Martin MS2 Radar Systems:

“The new Space Fence will be located in geographically dispersed areas to give us better coverage in the Southern Hemisphere in particular. It will also enhance the space situational awareness by being able to see smaller objects….Space Fence will be a system of systems that consists of 2 to 3 large S-band radars and those radars will join other sensors in the space surveillance network and provide space situational awareness to the Air Force….The scope of the Space Fence contract includes sensors, mission processing, data processing, facilities, and communications, the whole system requirement….In order to use the space domain, we need to have accurate space situational awareness….We need to know where things are so we can use space when and how we need to use it. So the military application can be summed as giving the Air Force enhanced space situational awareness.”

The Space Fence procurement is broken down into the following phases: Phase A, Preliminary Design Review, System Development, Deployment and Follow-on support. System development is scheduled to begin in June 2012, with the first Space Fence radar site providing initial operational capability by the end of fiscal year 2015, and the final site providing full capability by 2020.

To fit this program into its larger context, the US GAO characterized 4 facets of space situational awareness (SSA), an umbrella term that includes but it not limited to tracking space debris:

  1. Detect, Track, and Identify. The ability to discover, track, and differentiate among space objects. Space Fence will anchor this facet, but it won’t be the only asset used for this purpose.
  2. Threat warning and Assessment. The ability to predict and differentiate among potential or actual attacks, space weather environment effects, and space system anomalies. Space Fence may be able to help with this task, but in a secondary way.
  3. Intelligence characterization. The ability to determine performance and characteristics of current and future foreign space and counterspace system capabilities, as well as foreign adversary intentions. Better monitoring of space may help with intelligence collection, but in a tertiary way.
  4. Data integration. The ability to correlate and integrate multisource data into a single common operational picture and enable dynamic decision making. Out of scope for Space Fence. The USA’s pending Joint Space Operations Center Mission System (JMS) will play a large role here, and must be ready, or the amount of data generated by the new radars will exceed the system’s capacity.
Space Fence
Look waaay up…

Over the 2011-2015 period, Pentagon expects about 66% of their $3.3 billion SSA investment to buy new sensors, about 21% on JMS for data integration, and the other 13% on extending the lives of current sensors, and other SSA-related programs.

At an estimated program cost of $6.1 billion over its lifetime, Space Fence will be the USAF’s largest single investment in SSA sensors. It will serve alongside new systems like the SSBS satellite, the pending ground-based RAIDRS electromagnetic interference detection system, and DARPA’s pending ground-based Space Surveillance Telescope. They’re designed to boost the existing Space Surveillance Network, which includes 29 ground-based Department of Defense (DOD) and privately/foreign owned radar and optical sensors, at 17 worldwide locations; plus a communications network, and primary and alternate operations centers for data processing. Most of the sensors are mechanical tracking, phased-array, and continuous-wave radars, but optical telescopes are also used.

Contracts and Key Events

Space Fence
Space Fence concept
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strong>March 21/12: GAO report. “DOD Faces Challenges in Fully Realizing Benefits of Satellite Acquisition Improvements” includes a discussion of Space Fence’s acquisition strategy, and potential pitfalls. The agency doesn’t believe Space Fence will be ready before 2017, and sees a strong technical risk if the accompanying JMS ground system isn’t ready at the same time:

“Space Fence program officials have stated that Space Fence will be one of the largest phased array radars ever built. The size of the radar is expected to provide significant power… but may also pose increased risk…. To mitigate this risk, the Space Fence acquisition strategy includes maintaining competition through technology development and having two firms under contract doing parallel prototype development. This process allows program officials to evaluate contractor’s designs and associated costs while moving Space Fence’s four critical technologies and backup technologies toward maturity, before the program enters system development which is scheduled for later this year with the award of a single contract. Though earlier plans called for the first Space Fence site to achieve initial operational capability in 2015, estimates show that at current funding levels, this capability will not occur before 2017.

....Another area where synchronization in system development may pose problems is the Air Force’s Joint Space Operations Center Mission System (JMS) and Space Fence programs. JMS is to process data about space assets gathered by the Space Fence and other Space Situational Awareness (SSA) programs, and will increase DOD’s ability to track objects in space from about 10,000 objects with the current system to over 100,000 objects. According to the Space Fence program office, JMS needs to be available when the Space Fence is fielded because the amount of data Space Fence will generate exceeds existing command and control system performance limits. JMS recently underwent a change to its acquisition strategy, dividing the program’s development into two increments to reduce risk and more rapidly deliver needed capabilities. The first Space Fence radar site is scheduled to provide initial operational capability by the end of fiscal year 2017, and… JMS needs to be operational by this time.”

March 8/12: Lockheed Martin’s Space Fence prototype, developed under the Jan 26/11 contract, is beginning to track orbiting space objects. The USAF has said that it plans to award a Space Fence production contract later in 2012. Lockheed Martin.

Feb 29/12: PDR. The USAF grants its final approval of Lockheed Martin’s preliminary design for the Space Fence system. Source.

May 31/11: The US Congress’ Government Accountability Office auditors looks at American programs for monitoring space debris, and voice serious concerns. Excerpts:

“DOD has significantly increased its investment and planned investment in SSA acquisition efforts in recent years to address growing SSA capability shortfalls. Most efforts designed to meet these shortfalls have struggled with cost, schedule, and performance challenges and are rooted in systemic problems that most space acquisition programs have encountered over the past decade. Consequently, in the past 5 fiscal years, DOD has not delivered significant new SSA capabilities as originally expected…. two critical acquisition efforts that are scheduled to begin development within the next 2 years – Space Fence and the Joint Space Operations Center Mission System (JMS) – face development challenges and risks, such as the use of immature technologies and planning to deliver all capabilities in a single, large increment, versus smaller and more manageable increments…. GAO recommends that DOD assure—in approving the Space Fence and JMS acquisition efforts to initiate product development—that all critical technologies are identified and matured, and that other key risks have been fully assessed. If DOD determines that the programs should move forward with less mature technologies, DOD should assess available backup technologies and additional resources required to meet performance objectives….”

The GAO adds elsewhere that governance is at least as much of a problem as technology:

“There are significant inherent challenges to executing and overseeing the SSA mission, largely due to the sheer number of governmentwide organizations and assets involved…. while the recently issued National Space Policy assigns SSA responsibility to the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary does not necessarily have the corresponding authority to execute this responsibility. However, actions, such as development of a national SSA architecture, are being taken that could help facilitate management and oversight governmentwide. The National Space Policy, which recognizes the importance of SSA, directs other positive steps, such as the determination of roles, missions, and responsibilities to manage national security space capabilities and the development of options for new measures for improving SSA capabilities…. Finally, though the commercial sector and the international community are to play a pivotal role in the SSA mission, it is too early to tell whether DOD’s efforts to expand and make permanent its Commercial and Foreign Entities SSA data-sharing pilot program will be effective in integrating efforts to develop SSA capabilities.”

With respect to the Space Fence in particular, the report says that the original 3-site system (notionally Australia, Ascension Island in the south Atlantic, Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands) is very likely to devolve into a 2-site system on cost/benefit grounds, as the current Technology Development Phase assesses costs and tradeoffs. It adds:

“The primary program risk… is that the new Joint Space Operations Center Mission System (described below) will need to be available to process Space Fence data, as the amount of data provided will result in an increase in uncued detection and tracking capacity from 10,000 to 100,000 objects…. other risks of the program include large-scale integration and calibration of radar arrays, scalability of the design for the digital beam former,[C] and development of information assurance certification criteria…. All five critical Space Fence technologies identified by the program office are immature – one at technology readiness level (TRL) 4 and four at TRL 5…. mature backup critical technologies exist which could be used…. our best practices work has shown technology development to TRL 7 could significantly reduce risk to meeting cost, schedule and performance goals.”

See GAO | iWatch News.

Jan 26/11: Lockheed Martin and Raytheon each receive an 18-month contract worth $107 million (total: $214 million) for Space Fence Preliminary Design. These preliminary system designs must use mature technologies that meet or exceed Technology Readiness Level 6 and Manufacturing Readiness Level 6. The firms will also conduct radar performance analyses, evaluations and prototypes, and related activities, en route to a functional radar prototype with hardware and software components representative of the technology in the final design. A final production contract to one of the companies is expected in 2012.

Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems of Sudbury, MA will produce 1 preliminary design for the Space Fence Program. At this time, $20 million has been obligated by the ESC/HSIK at Hanscom AFB, MA (FA8707-11-C-0004),

Lockheed Martin Mission Systems & Sensors of Moorestown, NJ will produce 1 preliminary design for the Space Fence Program. At this time, $20 million has been obligated by the ESC/HSIK at Hanscom AFB, MA (FA8707-11-C-0005)

The missing Phase A contract winner is Northrop Grumman (see June 11/09 entry). Lockheed Martin release | Raytheon release

Jan 18/11: As part of a piece highlighting Raytheon personnel who won Black Engineer of the Year awards, Raytheon discusses:

“Adrian Williams is senior electrical engineer at Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) business in Andover, Mass. He works in the Wafer Fabrication Engineering department where his responsibilities include the development and transition-to-production of Gallium Nitride (GaN) process technology for future advanced radar systems. In this role, he manages the production GaN process line that provides an essential discriminator for new radar programs like Space Fence and Air and Missile Defense Radar. He also directed yield and process initiatives for a Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit chipset used by various Active Electronically Scanned Array programs and performed reliability analysis for multiple radar systems for Missile Defense Agency projects….”

Gallium Nitride integrated circuits have been a focus of research for DARPA, and for a number of defense firms, over the past few years. Raytheon has benefited from some of those contracts.

Nov 18/10: Lockheed Martin announces that the firm has submitted its Space Fence bid. John Morse, director of Lockheed Martin’s Space Fence program:

“The 2009 collision of an operational communications satellite with a defunct satellite illustrates the real risk space debris poses to both our manned and unmanned space missions. Space situational awareness is a national security priority and Space Fence will greatly enhance our ability to track and catalog orbiting objects which number in the tens of thousands.”

Nov 2/10: Raytheon announces a successful system design review (SDR) for their Space Fence program concept, which included the prototyping of critical system elements to demonstrate increased technical and manufacturing readiness levels. Scott Spence is program director of Space Fence program for Raytheon IDS:

“We’ve partnered with the Air Force on requirements trade studies and analysis, balancing cost, capability and technical maturity…. We’re confident we can support the Air Force’s need for an initial operating capability in 2015 and look forward to the next phase of the program.”

Oct 20/10: The Air Force’s Electronic Systems Center releases an RFP for the preliminary design review (PDR) phase of the Space Fence development. For the PDR phase, the ESC will award 2 contracts worth up to $214 million to 2 of the 3 companies that participated in Phase A: Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon. Hanscom AFB: RFP | Release.

June 11/09: The Air Force awarded $30 million firm-fixed-price contracts to Lockheed Martin Corp. in Moorestown, NJ; Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. in Linthicum, MS; and Raytheon Co. in Sudbury, MA, for Phase A of Space Fence development.

Under the contracts, which are cumulative and so worth a total of $90 million, the companies will provide Space Fence system design review, plans trades analysis and data, systems engineering planning; architecture planning; prototyping, modeling and simulation systems trades and analyses; risk management life cycle cost estimate, and technical data. Hill AFB in Utah manages the contract (FA8213-09-C-0051). See also Lockheed Martin | Northrop Grumman | Raytheon.

Additional Readings & Sources

Official Reports

News & Developments

  • Space.com (Feb 11/09) – U.S. Satellite Destroyed in Space Collision. Resulting in even more space debris, as thousands and thousands of pieces, still moving at lethal orbital speeds, replace the destroyed Cosmos 2251 and Iridium birds.
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