(Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional details from Lockheed and Northrop.)
Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman officials today announced their selections of the subcontractors that will provide payloads for their respective satellites tied to the Space Force's Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared effort.
Both companies chose between the same two teams for their respective decisions: Raytheon Technologies and Northrop-Ball Aerospace. Next-Gen OPIR consists of five planned satellites, three geosynchronous Earth orbit space vehicles from Lockheed and two polar satellites built by Northrop.
For Lockheed’s trio of Block 0 NGG satellites, the company chose Raytheon’s payloads for the second of its three space vehicles, meaning Raytheon will provide two of the three sensor designs in all to the prime contractor.
The final payload is set to be provided by Northrop-Ball, and both teams are on track to deliver flight-ready payloads by next year for the program, which will eventually replace the Space-Based Infrared System constellation with improved warning capabilities and resiliency.
“For this ‘Go-Fast’ program, both teams had to meet stringent schedule and performance requirements -- which they’ve done,” Joseph Rickers, Lockheed Martin’s NGG program vice president, said in the company’s press release. “These advanced OPIR payloads will support the critical mission by leveraging technologies with new capabilities on an aggressive schedule.”
Lockheed’s first Block 0 GEO satellite is scheduled to launch in 2025, and a company spokesman told Inside Defense in December that the third space vehicle is slated for fielding in 2028. The company has yet to decide which team’s payload will fly on those space vehicles. Both teams completed their critical design phase in summer 2021.
The company has yet to decide which team’s payload will fly on those space vehicles, Rickers told Inside Defense in a statement. Both teams completed their critical design phase in summer 2021, and Rickers noted they’ve each entered into their flight production phase.
The teams are each poised to deliver their individual payload to support the first space vehicle “as a risk mitigation to ensure” the 2025 launch date holds, he noted. Lockheed plans to make a decision about which team’s payload will support that vehicle “closer to payload integration,” a phase he said is expected to occur after delivery in the second quarter of 2023.
Meanwhile, Northrop today separately announced it and Ball will move forward with designing and developing payloads for both of the Polar-orbiting satellites that are part of Next-Gen OPIR.
Northrop is on contract to build the pair under a $2.4 billion 2020 Space Force deal. The same Northrop-Ball and Raytheon teams had been competing to develop those payloads.
“Our team’s solution for NGP will assure continuous coverage of the northern hemisphere -- especially the critical Arctic region -- to protect against incoming threats,” Sarah Willoughby, Northrop’s vice president for overhead persistent infrared and geospatial systems, said in the company’s press release.
Under Northrop’s contract, work is expected to be completed by December 2025. Randy Weidenheimer, the company’s acting deputy program manager for Next-Gen OPIR Polar, told Inside Defense in a statement that while there’s been no change of timeline, “we have presented options to our U.S. Space Force customer for accelerating delivery.”
Northrop and Ball are poised to complete the sensor payload work at Northrop’s site in Azusa, CA, the release noted.