BMD Watch: Raytheon delivers ICBM sensor

WASHINGTON, March 17 (UPI) -- Raytheon said Wednesday it has successfully demonstrated a fully integrated, high-performance infrared sensor for the Risk Reduction Alternative Infrared Satellite Systems program.

The program, which is sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missiles Systems Center and managed by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate in Albuquerque, N.M., aims to prove wide field-of-view infrared sensors can maintain persistent full-Earth surveillance for missile warning in a relatively small, low-risk and easily manufactured payload.

The company said the RR-AIRSS sensor represents a major technology advance compared with both the Defense Satellite and Space-based Infrared System programs.

"The RR-AIRSS sensor is an important part of the evolution of our nation's missile warning capabilities," Brian Arnold, vice president for Raytheon's Space Systems organization, said in a statement. "When potential missile threats can come today from anywhere on Earth, a persistent, whole-Earth-staring capability provides the enhanced detection sensitivity and responsiveness our war fighters need to make critical decisions."

The company is now preparing to finish environmental testing after which the sensor will go to the Air Force Research Laboratory for further evaluation.

Northrop Grumman completes Minuteman III MGS program

Northrop Grumman said last week it completed work on the U.S. Air Force's Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile guidance modernization program.

"The modernized missile guidance set was installed by the 20th Air Force onto a Minuteman III missile at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., in January," the company said in a statement. "Today, the entire force of 450 land-based ICBMs is converted to the modernized MGS, known as NS50."

The MGS upgrade is being performed under the ICBM Guidance Replacement Program, which is aimed at replacing and upgrading the 1970s-vintage electronics in the Minuteman III missile.

"Significant progress has been made today in completing the first step in meeting the Air Force's requirement to increase the reliability and nuclear safety of the Minuteman III weapon system," said John Clay, vice president and general manager of the ICBM Prime Integration Contract at Northrop Grumman's Mission Systems sector. "The Guidance Replacement Program has been a flagship program for Northrop Grumman and its teammates and more significantly for our customer, the United States Air Force."

Also part of the program is Boeing Electronic Systems Missile Defense, which produces the MGS, and Honeywell Space Systems Division, a major subcontractor to Boeing that provides the system's missile guidance computer.

The company said final GRP production deliveries are expected to be complete by early-2009. These include approximately 200 more missile-guidance sets that will be used for future Minuteman III flight tests and spares.