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The company unveiled version 9.0 of its Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution (FORGE) Mission Data Processing Application Framework, supporting the dissemination and relay of data from US satellites.
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Raytheon Intelligence & Space has confirmed the release of the most recent iteration of the US-government owned application in early February, designed for data integration with the Overhead Persistence Infrared Battlespace Awareness Center (OBAC) and Next Generation Interim Operations.
According to the company, the new version contains enhanced scalability, visualisation and cyber security protection.
“The FORGE framework provides a modular and extensible ground system that, together with mission applications, is used to process, exploit and disseminate mission data that is downlinked from satellites,” Sandy Brown, vice president, Strategic Systems, Space & C2 Systems at Raytheon Intelligence & Space said.
“The program is proving itself to be a pathfinder to demonstrate novel uses of infrared data, demonstrating the benefits of rapid-enterprise integration.”
New iterations of the FORGE capability are expected to be released every four months with improvements facilitated by Agile and DevSecOps to enhance the systems capability and cost.
The company explained that the new offering can disseminate Overhead Persistence Infrared (OPIR) data, providing enhanced communications capabilities between Space Force satellites and ground stations. It is expected that the product can integrate with Space Force’s upcoming Next Gen OPIR satellites.
“Already deployed into three government labs, the FORGE framework is being deployed to the OBAC and the backup mission control station in 2022 prior to deployment to the primary mission control station in 2023,” Brown continued.
In late 2021, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman announced that the companies were set to jointly deliver a digital ecosystem to support the US’ missile defence capability after securing accreditation.
The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has approved the Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Missiles & Defense Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) team’s common software factory solution and its associated digital infrastructure.
The accreditation, which followed a series of tests, is set to enable the integration and acceleration of the NGI software design and development.
The capability is billed as a single, agile, secure and efficient development environment, designed to enable the MDA to review and collaborate on code development and release.
“By leveraging our company’s digital transformation expertise, we successfully developed, tested, demonstrated and received customer approval for our NGI software factory in record time,” Lisa Brown, vice-president, NGI program at Northrop Grumman, said.
“This technology enables transparent collaboration between our teams and the MDA during NGI software development, which greatly reduces risk to schedule.”
The NGI common software factory is equipped with a set of tools, process workflows, scripts and environments built to deliver software deployable artifacts with minimal human intervention.
“We are rapidly maturing our preliminary design in a model-based environment,” Melissa Morrison-Ellis, deputy program director of Next Generation Interceptor at Raytheon Missiles and Defense, said.
“This digital ecosystem accelerates the software development timeline, ensuring that warfighters are equipped with defensive interceptors that protect the US from the threat of a rogue missile strike.”
This announcement comes a week after Northrop Grumman secured a US$153 million ($214.5 million) contract for full-rate production (FRP) of lots 10 and 11 of the AGM-88E2 Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM).
The contract includes the production of missiles for the US Navy and German Air Force.
Northrop Grumman has, thus far, produced over 1,500 AARGM missiles for the international cooperative acquisition program with the US Navy and the Italian Air Force.
The missile is designed to provide a supersonic, air-launched tactical missile system that enhances legacy AGM-88 HARM systems with next-generation capability.
The technology, used for the suppression and destruction of enemy air defence systems, is tipped to deliver a combination of precision, survivability and lethality, supporting the rapid engagement of land- and sea-based air-defence threats, while also striking time-sensitive targets.
[Related: Raytheon Technologies acquires space electronics company SEAKR Engineering]
