SMC Awards $309 Million Contracts for Rapid Weather Prototyping Efforts

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (SMC PR) — The Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) has awarded three Other Transaction Authority agreements, totaling $309 million, to develop prototypes for the Electro Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) Weather System (EWS) program. The awardees, each a member of the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC), are:  

• Raytheon Technologies
• General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems Group (subcontractors: EO Vista/Atmospheric & Environmental Research (AER)/Braxton Technologies)
• Atmospheric & Space Technology Research Associates (ASTRA) (subcontractors: Tyvak/Science & Technologies Corps (STC)/AER/Lockheed Martin)

Global EO/IR Weather coverage is currently provided by the aging Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) constellation. EWS will provide critical environmental data and forecasting of line of sight strategies for warfighter missions.

With these awards, the three contractors are authorized to begin design work and order long-lead parts to develop a prototype sensor capable of meeting DoD requirements for global cloud characterization and theater weather imagery.

The Government will select viable vendor designs for a prototype system build and launch for on-orbit demonstration by 2023. 

This is a major milestone for the DoD and industry, as it gives multiple contractors the opportunity to use state of the art technology to deliver simplified solutions to meet DoD needs.

By validating the performance of these simplified, highly producible prototypes, the DoD will be well postured to rapidly field operational satellites by 2025 after retiring the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program.

About SMC EO/IR-EWS Program: The Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) Weather System (EWS) will continue the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s (DMSP) mission to provide global terrestrial cloud forecasting and theater weather imagery data to warfighters, for timely mission operations planning and execution.

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