NUDET Detection System (SPACE)

Abstract

The United States Nuclear Detonation (NUDET) Detection System (USNDS) provides a near real-time worldwide, highly survivable capability to detect, locate, and report any nuclear detonations in the earth's atmosphere or in near space. USNDS supports NUDET detection requirements across five mission areas: Integrated Tactical Warning and Attack Assessment (ITW/AA), Nuclear Force Management (NFM), Space Control (SC), Treaty Monitoring (TM) and a classified mission. The USNDS program is jointly sponsored and funded by the Department of Defense (DoD), through the US Air Force, and the Department of Energy (DOE), through the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its Nuclear Detonation Detection (NA-22) office, respectively. NNSA/NA-22 supplies, at no cost to DoD, USNDS NUDET space sensors as Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) to the Air Force's USNDS Program Office, which is responsible for all acquisition and systems engineering, integration and test (SEIT) activities on space vehicles (SVs), to include Global Positioning System (GPS) and additional hosts, and their supporting ground control segments. DoD funds their contribution to the NDS program in Program Element (PE) 0305913F with RDT&E,AF, OPAF and Operation & Maintenance (O&M) dollars. NDS payload integration onto GPS satellites is funded in the GPS Space & Control PE 0305165F for GPS IIF and in the GPS III Space Segment PE 0305265F for GPS III. USNDS consists of both space and ground segments. The space segment sensors, funded by DOE, consists of three nuclear detection sensor payloads: the Radiation Detection Capability (RADEC) payload for Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites, the Global Burst Detection (GBD) payload for Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) platforms (GPS satellites), and the Space Atmospheric Burst Reporting System (SABRS) payload for Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) platforms (classified GEO hosts). The RADEC sensor includes neutron gamma, optical and X-ray sensors. The GBD payload consists of optical, x-ray, and Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) sensors. The SABRS payload consists of neutron, gamma ray and space environmental sensors. Together, these sensors comprise the global NUDET detection capability for USNDS. Space sensors communicate NUDET indications to the ground control segment which includes the Integrated Correlation and Display System (ICADS), Ground NDS Terminals (GNTs), and Universal Ground NDS Terminals (UGNTs), when fielded. These ground systems, funded by the Air Force, perform data analysis and provide a decision support tool to the Air Force controllers concerning probability of NUDET occurrence. ICADS resides on two fixed ground terminals as well as GNT, which provides ground receiving analysis and reporting capabilities to national authorities, commands, and forward users. The ground control segment is being modernized and continuously improved through an incremental evolution acquisition approach. The upgrade to the GNT is the Universal Ground Nuclear Detonation (NUDET) Detection System (NDS) Terminal (UGNT) which is funded with RDT&E, AF in this PE. The UGNT provides NUDET Detection Reports to end users, supports Integrated Tactical Warning and Attack Assessment (ITW/AA) missions, and provides survivable and endurable USNDS communications via Milstar/Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) circuits. The UGNT program modifies the baseline of the GNT program and deploys as an integral part of the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) Survivable / Endurable Evolution (S2E2) Mobile Ground System (SMGS) units. The UGNT, when integrated with the SMGS, will perform NUDET event processing with fused NDS data from GPS and DSP. SMGS capability refers to the result of the S2E2 upgrade program for the MGS mission processing capability, including the integration of UGNT. The intended end state of UGNT integration is delivery of enhanced missile warning and NUDET detection capabilities that meet survivable/endurable ITW/AA requirements directed by the President, SECDEF, Joint Staff, and USSTRATCOM delivering long-term, cost effective, multi-role, multi-mission space effects to the war fighter across the range of military operations. This NDS PE 0305913F includes systems engineering, research, development, manufacture, integration, on-orbit and field testing and end-to-end verification of USNDS space sensors, ground analysis and reporting systems in support of the 5 (five) USNDS mission areas. This program is in Budget Activity 7 - Operational System Development because it supports operational systems.

Document Details

• Document Type: R2 Budgetary Justification
• Publication Date: Oct 01, 2014
• Source ID: 0305913F_7_3600_PB_2014
• Change Summary Explanation: FY14: -$0.305M due to higher Air Force priorities
• Service Agency Name: Air Force

Entities

Organizations

• United States Air Force

Tags

Communities of Interest

• Space
• Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

• Acquisition
• Air Force
• Artificial Satellites
• Data Processing
• Department Of Defense
• Detection
• Detectors
• Earth Orbits
• Engineering
• Global Positioning Systems
• Medium Earth Orbits
• Military Operations
• Orbits
• Reconnaissance Satellites
• Software Development
• Spacecraft
• Systems Engineering

Readers

• Aerospace Engineering.

Technology Areas

• Space
• Space - Satellites