Weather System Follow-on

Abstract

WSF is the Department of Defense's (DoD) follow-on system to the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and other DoD environmental monitoring satellites. WSF will be comprised of a group of systems to provide timely, reliable, and high quality space-based remote sensing capabilities that will make global environmental observations of atmospheric, terrestrial, oceanographic, solar-geophysical and other requirements validated by the Joint Staff. The Space-Based Environmental Monitoring (SBEM) Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) concluded that all except one of the JROC endorsed Category A capability gaps demonstrated military utility. Some of these capability gaps may materialize immediately; therefore, the earliest possible launch is critical to mitigate potential gaps in meeting DoD's space-based weather requirements. The planned deployment for an operational weather satellite to fully meet validated requirements is in the early 2020s. DoD established WSF as a Pre-Major Defense Acquisition Program (MDAP). Based on the SBEM AoA results, WSF's primary thrusts will be to enable: 1) DoD use of data collected by civil, international and other DoD space systems. 2) Timely weather collection over broad oceans in support of maneuver forces. 3) Space weather capabilities to characterize operational orbits, space situational awareness, and the ionosphere. Secondary investments may be supported to address weather gaps identified in the SBEM AoA and validated by the Joint Staff. This program is in Budget Activity 4, Advanced Component Development and Prototypes (ACD&P) because efforts are necessary to evaluate integrated technologies, representative modes or prototype systems in a high fidelity and realistic operating environment.

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Document Details

Document Type
R2 Budgetary Justification
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2015
Source ID
0604422F_4_3600_PB_2015
Change Summary Explanation
FY13: Congressional Directed Reduction -$2.00 for carryover of fiscal year 2012 funds. FY15: Funding added for Weather System Follow-on development
Service Agency Name
Air Force

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Air Force

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Budgets
  • Cost Analysis
  • Costs
  • Environmental Monitoring
  • Meteorological Satellites
  • Military Acquisition
  • Prototypes
  • Situational Awareness
  • Space Based
  • Space Situational Awareness
  • Space Systems
  • Space Weather
  • Spacecraft
  • Test And Evaluation

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering.
  • Defense Acquisition Program Management

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Satellites

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