TYB
Pentagon greenlights $140 billion ICBM program despite cost overruns
July 8, 2024
The U.S. Department of Defense has decided to proceed with the $140 billion Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program, despite significant cost growth and schedule setbacks, officials announced July 8.
Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisitions William LaPlante certified that the Sentinel program met statutory criteria to continue, following a comprehensive review triggered by a critical Nunn-McCurdy breach earlier this year.
The breach occurred when program costs exceeded baseline projections by more than 25 percent.
The Sentinel program aims to replace the aging Minuteman III ICBMs, which form the land-based leg of the U.S. nuclear triad. Total program acquisition costs are now estimated at $140.9 billion.
“We are fully aware of the costs, but we are also aware of the risks of not modernizing our nuclear forces and not addressing the very real threats we confront,” LaPlante said in a statement.
The program, led by prime contractor Northrop Grumman, has faced criticism from lawmakers due to its escalating costs. The cost per unit has risen from an initially projected $118 million to $162 million, a 37 percent increase.
The projected total program cost over the next decade jumped from $96 billion to approximately $120 billion, before the latest revision to $140 billion.
DoD officials maintain that replacing the Minuteman III ICBMs with the new Sentinel system is crucial for maintaining the land-based portion of the U.S. nuclear triad.
The program is now expected to be delayed by several years, with initial operational capability likely pushed to the early 2030s.
The review identified the command and launch segment as a primary driver of cost growth. This segment includes launch facilities, launch centers, and the process of converting from Minuteman III to Sentinel.
Other factors contributing to the cost increase include design changes requested by the Air Force, underestimation of infrastructure work complexity, economic factors such as increased construction costs and labor scarcity, and longer lead times for missile guidance system components.
https://spacenews.com/pentagon-greenlights-140-billion-icbm-program-despite-cost-overruns/
LIVE: President Trump Holds a Rally at Trump National in Doral, Florida - 7/9/24
President Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America, will Deliver Remarks at a Rally in Doral, Florida on Tuesday, July 9, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. ET. Special guests will give remarks at 5:00 p.m. ET.
RSBN will be LIVE at 11:30 a.m. ET.
https://rumble.com/v560kfz-live-president-trump-holds-a-rally-at-trump-national-in-doral-florida-7924.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuOrsMcZxko
NASA to Cover Northrop Grumman’s 20th Cargo Space Station Departure
JUL 08, 2024
Northrop Grumman’s uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to depart the International Space Station on Friday, July 12, five and a half months after delivering more than 8,200 pounds of supplies, scientific investigations, commercial products, hardware, and other cargo to the orbiting laboratory for NASA and its international partners.
This mission was the company’s 20th commercial resupply mission to the space station for NASA.
Live coverage of the spacecraft’s departure will begin at 6:30 a.m. EDT on the NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website.
Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.
Flight controllers on the ground will send commands for the space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to detach Cygnus from the Unity module’s Earth-facing port, then maneuver the spacecraft into position for its release at 7 a.m. NASA astronaut Mike Barratt will monitor Cygnus’ systems upon its departure from the space station.
Following unberthing, theKentucky Re-entry Probe Experiment-2 (KREPE-2), stowed inside Cygnus, will take measurements to demonstrate a thermal protection system for the spacecraft and its contents during re-entry in Earth’s atmosphere.
Cygnus – filled with trash packed by the station crew – will be commanded to deorbit on Saturday, July 13, setting up a destructive re-entry in which the spacecraft will safely burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
The Northrop Grumman spacecraft arrived at the space station Feb. 1, following a launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-to-cover-northrop-grummans-20th-cargo-space-station-departure/
Maxar upgrades satellite imagery basemaps
July 9, 2024
SAN FRANCISCO – Maxar Intelligence’s new global basemap offers 15-centimeter imagery for metropolitan areas.
The Vivid Advanced 15-centimeter HD Basemap, unveiled July 9, will be particularly important for mapping and navigation applications, Bryan Smith, Maxar 2D products director, told SpaceNews.
“In areas where there’s significant change occurring, our customers need a little bit more clarity so that they can keep the maps up to date,” Smith said.
“Whether it’s being able to digitize lane lines or other road features, being able in dense urban environments to determine where buildings start and stop, or what’s an alley versus a sidewalk versus a road.
You need that kind of clarity that our 15-centimeter HD product provides to meet the customer need.”
Mapping and Visualization
Maxar began offering global satellite imagery with a resolution of 30-centimeters per pixel in 2023.
Prior to that, Maxar’s basemap offered 50-centimeter resolution worldwide and 30-centimeter resolution for select cities.
Customers for the upgraded imagery include national map makers. In addition, the maps will serve customers focused on visualization and simulation.
“Things like flight simulators fall into that bucket,” Smith said. Similarly, defense mission planning and analysis often requires background images as part of the workflow, he added.
Annual Refresh
For areas of frequent change, Maxar’s goal is annual refresh.
“If you think about where change is occurring, it’s occurring around population centers,” Smith said.
“We’re continuing to cover population centers because that’s where people live, work and play.
But we’ve expanded coverage in an intelligent fashion to those exurbs and to specific areas within population centers where change is occurring.”
Outside areas of rapid change, Maxar seeks to update imagery every other year. Those refresh rates are “something we will drive to over time,” Smith said.
Legion’s Contribution
Maxar’s six-satellite WorldView Legion constellation will support Vivid Advanced basemaps.
“We’re excited to have that imagery in our product suite,” Smith said.
The first two WorldView Legion satellites, which acquire 30-centimeter electro-optical imagery, launched May 2 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base.
Legion will provide “additional 30-centimeter native capacity that we can then produce into this 15-centimeter HD Basemap over areas that are relevant for our customers,” Smith said.
https://spacenews.com/maxar-upgrades-satellite-imagery-basemaps/
SpaceX Turksat 6A Mission
On Sunday, July 8 at 7:30 p.m. ET, SpaceX launched the Turksat 6A mission to geosynchronous transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
This was the ninth flight of the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched CRS-26, OneWeb Launch 16, Intelsat IS-40e, O3b mPOWER, Ovzon 3, Eutelsat 36D, and eight Starlink missions.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=turksat6a
STARCOM welcomes USSF Cyber Combat Course from SpOC
July 8, 2024
The Space Force’s Cyber Combat Course has a new home at Space Training and Readiness Command.
Effective July 1, C3 transitioned from Space Operations Command’s Space Delta 6 Detachment 1 to STARCOM’s 533d Training Squadron.
Since its inception on June 20, 2023, the course has trained 277 graduates over 22 sessions facilitated by a team of 22 instructors.
Designed as a 15-week, self-paced course, C3 utilizes a two-phased teaching approach, focusing on red and blue cyber tactics. Each phase ends with a capstone project and an industry-level certification.
“This course is critical in generating combat-ready Guardians,” said Col. Christopher Kennedy, Space Delta 6 commander.
“The Detachment 1 instructors rapidly solved a service-level problem, did the analysis to prove the viability of their solution, and then scaled capacity to train our operators before transitioning the course to STARCOM.”
With this transition, the 533d TRS will host the course at its Colorado Springs location, managing up to five concurrent cohorts with a capacity to train 100 students at any given time.
According to Maj. Joseph Schlueter, STARCOM’s chief of cyber training integration, the transfer, with zero mission impact, was only made possible by a combined team of professionals dedicated to C3’s continued success.
“This transfer is a team effort, but major credit goes to the whole Detachment 1 team, especially its commander, Major Roberto Molineros, senior enlisted leader, Master Sgt. Steven Brumley, and training flight chief, Master Sgt. Christopher Reljin,” said Schlueter.
“On 533d’s end, kudos go to their Detachment 2 commander at Keesler Air Force Base, Capt. Samuel Aspiranti. We’ve even managed to leverage the Total Force by bringing on Lt. Col. Danny ‘dj’ Morales from the 42d Combat Training Squadron to manage the course on an interim basis.”
Instrumental to the seamless transfer, Schlueter further credits SpOC’s Lt. Col. Mark Boatman, STARCOM and Space Delta 1’s Financial Management and Comptroller shops, STARCOM’s business operations office, 533d’s Meredith McElroy, and 1st Delta Operations Squadron’s Tech. Sgt. Austin Morgan and Tech. Sgt. John Babick.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Arehart, Commander of the 533d TRS, expressed readiness and enthusiasm to integrate C3 into their operations, aligning with their longstanding expertise in initial skills training.
“I’m excited to continue Delta 6 Det 1’s work,” Arehart said. “With C3 transitioning to an SFSC [Space Force Specialty Code] awarding course and the 533d having done initial skills for a long time, it fits naturally into our family.
We’re honored and ready to take on this mission from our teammates at Delta 6 Det 1.”
https://www.starcom.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3825086/starcom-welcomes-ussf-cyber-combat-course-from-spoc/
Satellite communications mission brings Space Force to Navy town
July 9, 2024
San Diego has long been known for its strong U.S. Navy presence, but many people may not know it’s also home to part of the U.S. Space Force.
Space Systems Command’s Narrowband Satellite Communications program office was originally part of the Navy, delivering communications capabilities in the Ultra High Frequency spectrum to support deployments on land, air and sea, with voice services to data networks.
On Oct. 1, 2021, the program — including 76 manpower authorizations and 13 satellites — was transferred to the Space Force’s SSC.
Since the creation of the USSF as a separate service, space-related capabilities that were previously spread out across the U.S. Department of Defense have been consolidated within the USSF to increase operational capability, readiness and improve efficiency.
Narrowband SATCOM is critically important to the warfighter, as the UHF spectrum can operate in both urban and jungle environments, through all weather, to support smaller, low-power portable terminals with omni-directional antennas, providing affordable, reliable communication for people on the move.
The U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard all benefit from the space-enabled capabilities that USSF/SSC develops and delivers.
“Having such close connections to the actual users of our systems, from Navy ships to Marine Corps platoons, helps the program office deliver just what the warfighter needs and helps us better understand how to make improvements,” said Dave Russell, warfighter integration lead for the program.
“We’re also keeping up with what’s going on in the commercial world and whether we should be using some of those capabilities as well.”
Technological changes have led to rapid improvements in everything from making rocket launches more affordable to improvements in data transfer and analysis, and the field continues to change rapidly, bringing with it new capabilities and possibilities.
“Being organizationally aligned under the Space Systems Command in Los Angeles and having the latest space technology and resources consolidated under the USSF is helping us look at other ways of doing business and leveraging common mission areas,” said Denese Cordaro, deputy director for SSC’s Narrowband SATCOM Acquisition Delta.
“And that could mean anything from inserting new technology to how we operate our satellites.”
The program office’s responsibilities include the acquisition of the Mobile User Objective System and the sustainment of the UHF Follow-On system.
MUOS provides secure, beyond-line-of-sight worldwide satellite communications for joint warfighters. These satellites provide increased capacity, partial polar coverage, encryption, and better resistance to electromagnetic interference.
In addition, it is Internet Protocol based, making it more interoperable with commercial and other U.S. Department of Defense systems.
For U.S. forces on the ground, the MUOS system provides mobile services, with the satellites acting as cellular towers that allow warfighters to communicate directly with each other and with commanders virtually anywhere in the world at higher levels of quality and much greater capacity.
The team is located at the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command in Old Town San Diego and has engineering and testing laboratories on Point Loma.
“Not a lot of people know there’s a U.S. Space Force presence here in San Diego; we are actively working to change that,” said Navy Capt. Pete Sheehy, SSC’s Narrowband SATCOM Acquisition Delta director.
“Since the program’s transfer from the Navy to the U.S. Space Force, we’ve expanded our outreach to the local San Diego community to increase understanding of the U.S Space Force mission, and the exciting opportunities here in San Diego to support that mission.”
Narrowband SATCOM provides connectivity to the warfighter and this Space Force office, in the middle of the Navy town of San Diego, is delivering that critical communications capability to the Joint and Coalition Forces around the world.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3831602/satellite-communications-mission-brings-space-force-to-navy-town/