BMD Watch: SBIRS software passes IDR check

WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin has concluded a full Integrated Design Review of its SBIRS flight software.

The company said in a statement Tuesday it had finished a full review of the command and control flight software for the Space Based Infrared System geo-synchronous orbit spacecraft.

SBIRS is a next-generation system to be deployed more than 22,000 miles above the Earth in order to provide early warning of any potentially hostile missile launches around the world.

The IDR involved almost 80 officials from the U.S. Air Force, the Aerospace Corp. and the Department of Defense and it took place at Lockheed Martin's complex in Sunnyvale, Calif., the company said.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the SBIRS program for the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base.

The company said it upgraded the SBIRS flight software to boost its command and data handling, fault management and safe-hold systems. The fault management system reacts when it finds any anomaly in operating procedures and puts the entire SBIRS complex into a safe state while operators while ground controllers study the problem and act to repair it.

"The successful review is direct testimony to the joint team's hard work and commitment to achieving operational excellence on this critical national program," said Jeff Smith, Lockheed Martin's SBIRS vice president and GEO-1 program manager. "We look forward to our continued progress and bringing powerful new global surveillance capabilities to our war fighters with the launch of this first-of-its-kind spacecraft."

With the IDR finished, the Lockheed Martin Space Systems team will now focus completing the development of the SBIRS flight software blocks required to go ahead with pre-launch spacecraft testing. This will involve thermal vacuum testing to check the satellite's capability to function at greater heat levels than anticipated when it is in space.

When the satellite completes its environmental and final integrated test phase, it will be sent to the U.S. Air Force late next year to be fired into orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base, Fla.

Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, Azusa, Calif. is the payload integrator on the project.

Lockheed Martin said it has contractual obligations to manufacture two HEO payloads and two GEO satellites, along with ground-based communications and IT systems to record and analyze the infrared data that SBIRS collects.

Lockheed Martin said it had already completed and sent to the Air Force team has delivered both HEO payloads. It said the first HEO payload had already passed through its initial on-orbit deployment and checkout and the results of those procedures had matched or gone beyond program specifications.

The company has already begun the process of working on more GEO SBIRS spacecraft and HEO payloads for the program, it said.

Raytheon test-fires 4 SM-2 interceptors

Raytheon says the U.S. Navy has flight-tested four of its Standard Missile 2 Block IIIB missiles in recent operations.

The combined combat system ship qualification trials were carried out last month off Point Mugu, Calif., the company said in a statement on March 28.

It said U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer USS Sampson -- DDG-102 -- fired the four SM-2 Block IIIB missiles and that all of them "successfully engaged their targets, which had been programmed to simulate different kinds of threats." The results of the tests confirmed the SM-2's accuracy and reliability, the company said.

"This outcome demonstrates the continued success of the government-industry team in making SM-2 the area defense missile of choice for the U.S. Navy and its allies," said Ron Shields, Raytheon's Standard Missile program director.

Officials from the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division Sea Test Range, the Navy's Standard Missile Program Office and Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, Ariz. Participated in the testing program, Raytheon said.

The company described the SM-2 Block IIIB anti-ballistic missile interceptor as the most recent mark of its Standard Missile, which was equipped with an infrared seeker and other upgrades. Earlier marks have served as the U.S. Navy's main surface-to-air fleet air defense system for over 30 years, the company said.

Standard Missiles have been repeatedly upgraded over the decades in order to deal with increasing tactical challenges. Raytheon said they were still the most advanced anti-air warfare missile carried by any navy in the world and they had the capability to intercept anti-ship cruise missiles, aircraft and helicopters.

The SM-2 is carried by U.S. Navy guided missile cruisers and destroyers and is also in service with seven other allied navies, the company said.