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Raytheon’s advanced ground system for the US Space Force’s space-based missile warning system has now achieved operational status at the Overhead Persistent Infrared Battlespace Awareness Center (OBAC).
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The Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution Mission Data Processing Application Framework (FORGE MDPAF) is a modular and adaptable framework that enables fast integration of mission-focused applications to process, exploit and disseminate information from satellites.
Sandy Brown, vice-president for mission solutions and payloads for Raytheon, said: “There are thousands of satellites on orbit today, and space is an increasingly contested domain.”
The current version of FORGE MDPAF is the result of the company working through regular incremental development releases to optimise and add new iterative capabilities.
As a next step, FORGE MDPAF will move from supporting OBAC operations to full missile warning detection.
“FORGE MDPAF is designed to scale in a way that can handle the current volume of missile warning data and grow to support future proliferated space data processing needs,” Brown said.
The US Space Force’s FORGE MDPAF is used to process Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) satellite data from both the US Space Force’s Space-Based Infrared System constellation and the future Next-Gen OPIR constellation, as well as processing data from other civil and environmental sensors.
The state-of-the-art Overhead Persistent Infrared Battlespace Awareness Center (OBAC) officially opened in July 2023, at the Mission Control Station at Buckley Space Force Base, Colorado, and contains vital strategic capabilities such as the Space Awareness and Global Exploitation (SAGE), Strategic Operationally Agile Response (SOAR) and Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution (FORGE).
The new space operations floor will allow Guardians access to more advanced weapon systems that will allow them to enhance operations that strengthen the way joint and coalition forces fight.
