BAE Systems completes critical design review for $1.2 billion missile-tracking program

BAE Systems has completed the critical design review for the Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking Medium Earth Orbit Epoch 2 program under a 1.2 billion dollar prime contract with United States Space Force Space Systems Command. The defense program provides space-based detection and tracking of ballistic missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles, transitioning the architecture from design verification into manufacturing.

Technical Payload Integration and Constellation Control Systems
Under the terms of the agreement, BAE Systems serves as the prime contractor responsible for delivering 10 space vehicles alongside integrated ground mission segments. The ground architecture coordinates constellation flight dynamics, payload data processing, and tactical command and control to streamline operational management.

The vehicle design integrates electro-optical infrared optical payloads onto the established Trek spacecraft bus. Digital modeling and model-based systems engineering frameworks enabled engineering teams to conduct detailed simulations of thermal dissipation, pointing accuracy, and structural integrity, validating that operational, performance, and safety criteria meet military specifications. Thai Sheridan, Vice President and General Manager of Military Space for BAE Systems Space and Mission Systems, stated that digital modeling, simulation tools, and sustained customer alignment allowed the team to execute the critical design review rapidly, positioning the company to engage vertically integrated production facilities for bus fabrication, payload integration, and command-and-control deployment.

Procurement Schedule and Constellation Architecture
The critical design review concluded 14 months following initial contract award, adhering to the accelerated acquisition schedules mandated by United States Space Force middle-tier procurement guidelines. To compress production timelines, BAE Systems initiated long-lead hardware procurements during the design evaluation phase, mitigating supply-chain bottlenecks for critical components.

The Epoch 2 constellation forms part of a multi-orbit missile-warning layer designed to augment existing geostationary assets with resilient medium Earth orbit coverage. Dispersed medium Earth orbit configurations maintain continuous line-of-sight tracking on dim, highly maneuverable thermal signatures generated by hypersonic boost-glide systems and intermediate-range ballistic vectors across broad geographic theaters.

Additional Context:
This section details technical specifications and competitive benchmarking not included in the original product announcement

The Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking (RMWT) Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) enterprise represents an architectural transition by the United States Space Force away from single-orbit reliance on the legacy Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) and the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-Gen OPIR) constellations located primarily in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) and highly elliptical orbits (HEO).

In the initial tranche of the MEO initiative, designated Epoch 1, Space Systems Command originally selected Millennium Space Systems (a subsidiary of Boeing) and RTX (Raytheon) to develop competing prototypes. Following program restructuring in 2024 due to cost and schedule variances, RTX was offboarded, and Millennium Space Systems was awarded an expanded contract to produce 12 Epoch 1 space vehicles scheduled to field the first operational planes.

For Epoch 2, Space Systems Command designated BAE Systems as the prime contractor for the first two orbital planes (encompassing 10 satellites), with a competitive source selection underway for a secondary vendor to deliver subsequent planes. While Millennium Space Systems utilizes its Altair-class small-satellite platform adapted for high-radiation MEO corridors, BAE Systems leverages the Trek spacecraft bus—a heritage design origin from its acquisition of Ball Aerospace—which incorporates wide-field-of-view (WFOV) infrared tracking sensors engineered to detect dimmer target profiles in mid-wave infrared (MWIR) spectra.

At the ground-station segment, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions provides open-architecture virtualized telemetry, tracking, and control (TT&C) management infrastructure supporting enterprise cross-compatibility between both Epoch 1 and Epoch 2 orbital tiers.

Edited by Natania Lyngdoh, Induportals editor, assisted by AI.

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