Hypersonic Missile Defense Technology Under Development

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Many of today’s missile-defense systems are not able to track and kill hypersonic weapons, which are designed to outmaneuver contemporary detection systems through speed and hyper-maneuverability. Hypersonic weapons can reach their target at a speed five times than the speed of sound and more.

U.S. missile-defense experts are asking Northrop Grumman to develop a prototype satellite sensor to detect and track inbound enemy ballistic and hypersonic missiles. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has awarded a $155 million contract to the company’s Aeronautics Systems segment for the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) Phase IIA effort.

HBTSS seeks to develop satellites for low-Earth orbit to provide global sensor coverage to detect, track, and target ballistic and hypersonic missiles.

An on-orbit prototype demonstration of HBTSS capability will culminate with launch and early orbit testing.

HBTSS is to detect, track, and discriminate among missile targets, and ultimately will fold into the planned sensor infrastructure of the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) missile tracking layer, which will consist of hundreds of satellites in low Earth orbit that communicate with each other and work together to detect and track enemy weapons.

HBTSS satellites will have wide-field-of-view sensors networked together with optical inter-satellite cross-links to detect and track targets on land, at sea, in the air, and in space.

The HBTSS will be one of dozens of satellites with medium-field-of-view sensors that will provide fire-control data to missile defense systems to intercept incoming hypersonic and ballistic missiles, as reported by militaryaerospace.com.