Space Development Agency (SDA) announced about plans to purchase two separate ground systems to support experimental missile defense satellites. These systems will be critical to demonstrating advanced space-based sensors designed to track and destroy hypersonic missiles.

The first program, called Advanced Fire Control Ground Infrastructure (AFCGI), involves the creation of a cloud-based ground system at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. This system will serve as the nerve center for missile tracking experiments; The first of these is the Foo Fighter constellation, which stands for Fire Control in Orbital Support to Fighter.

Millennium Space Systems recently signed a contract to build eight satellites and provide initial ground support by 2027.

“AFCGI represents a significant step in demonstrating advanced fire management capabilities,” SDA Director Derek Turner told reporters May 24. The agency is seeking “common durable ground infrastructure” for prototype fire management programs.

The Foo Fighter satellites will be used as a testbed for advanced sensor technology capable of detecting and tracking hypersonic missiles. The data collected by these satellites will contribute to the development of a much larger constellation of low Earth orbit surveillance satellites that will be part of the US Department of Defense’s Proliferate Warfighter space architecture. The U.S. Space Force agency SDA plans to spend about $4 billion a year on PWSA development.

Missile defense is an extremely complex mission that requires a seamless flow of data between satellites, ground systems, and interceptor missiles to guide them in destroying threats in flight.

Two-component grounding system

Tournear explained that SDA initially planned to purchase a single common ground system for all satellite shows. However, the technical complexity of firefighting technology required a different approach.

In addition to managing the satellites themselves, AFCGI will also have a separate Advanced Fire Control Mission Integration (AFCMI) contract for the processing and integration of fire control monitoring data. The AFCMI system will take data from Foo Fighters and future experiments, analyze it and standardize formatting so it can be used by the broader missile defense network.

The application for the AFCMI system will be published this summer. The contract is expected in early 2025, Turner said.

According to Turner, the decision to split the initial ground system purchase was based on feedback from the industry. He explained that ground mission integration and data mission integration require different skills, and the two-pronged approach allows the SDA to use the expertise best suited to each function.