Northrop wins deep-space radar award

Northrop Grumman has won a $341 million contract for work on the first site of the Space Force's Deep-Space Advanced Radar Capability to provide persistent space domain awareness in geosynchronous orbit.

The award, announced by the company today, covers development, test and delivery of the new ground-based radar capability, and comes after the Space Force sought prototype proposals for the program over the summer.

The initial DARC contract, Northrop’s release states, covers the first radar site system located in the Indo-Pacific region, with an expected completion date of 2025. The Space Force has previously reported that the remaining two DARC radar sites will be operational by April 2027.

The push is one that Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting, the head of Space Operations Command, previously characterized to reporters as complementary to the Space Fence Increment One.

That ground-based radar, which achieved initial operational capability in March 2020, gives defense officials the ability to detect, track and characterize a much larger catalogue of space objects in more detail than it has before.

Space Force budget documents for fiscal year 2022 showed DARC’s focus this year will be on source selection for Site 1, as well as initial design and build activities. But beyond that, the justification documents show the service will also seek to improve resiliency by conducting studies, technical analysis, additional prototyping and risk reduction activities.

DARC acquisition is being managed through an Other Transaction Authority via the Space Enterprise Consortium, as noted in a past Space Force listing. The first phase of the effort was certified as a Mid-Tier Acquisition rapid prototype program in May.

“While current ground-based systems operate at night and can be impacted by weather conditions, DARC will provide an all-weather, 24/7 capability to monitor the highly dynamic and rapidly evolving geosynchronous orbital environment critical to national and global security,” Pablo Pezzimenti, Northrop’s vice president of integrated national systems, said in the release.