EO/IR Weather System Dev
Abstract
In compliance with the 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) Memo's 092-14, 062-17, and 031-22, EWS will provide global Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) coverage to meet Space-Based Environmental Monitoring (SBEM) Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) Gaps 1) Cloud Characterization (CC) and 2) Theatre Weather Imagery (TWI). This capability will operationally replace the obsolete and aging Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) projected end-of-life June 2026, and the EWS-Geostationary (EWS-G) projected end-of-life Sept 2030. Without the CC and TWI data, production of global predictive weather data will be severely impacted, affecting daily air operations and intelligence gathering for strategic mission planning. Moreover, INDOPACOM, CENTCOM, and AFRICOM will be unable to forecast and monitor adverse weather conditions over eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean. Lastly, the US will not meet the DoD responsibility of maintaining the SBEM civil/international partnership for the Family of Systems architecture. Based on SBEM Capability Assessment and Strategy Review (CASR) in April 2019, the current EWS acquisition strategy focuses on a distributed LEO architecture, for scalability and increased operational resilience. The Space Force will pursue prototyping of latest industry capabilities for simplified sensor designs, while meeting CC and TWI requirements and data latencies in a distributed architecture. Space acquisition must respond with speed and agility to emerging adversary threats. Space Systems Command (SSC) has transformed the organization and implementation of space acquisition to an enterprise approach, maximizing innovation and resiliency, leveraging international, commercial, and mission partnerships, and managing program/project priorities according to an integrated unclassified/classified enterprise space architecture. Expanding the appropriate acquisition authorities and contract mechanisms to deliver capability sooner, SSC will strategically execute experimentation, prototyping, risk reduction, and other efforts to develop new or repurpose existing capabilities. This program element may include necessary civilian pay expenses required to manage, execute, and deliver EWS for weapon system capability. The use of such program funds would be in addition to the civilian pay expenses budgeted in program elements 1206392SF and 1206398SF. This effort 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.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Project
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2024
- Source ID
- 643730_1203710SF_4_3620F_PB_2024
Related Documents
- Root: EO/IR Weather Systems
- Child Accomplishment: Electro-Optical/Infrared Weather System (EWS)
- Child Cost Item: dbec4b5b01a5a31d1d0dc5667a396e85
- Child Cost Item: bb4efc776b7fcbcf3f5d748e6a502142
- Child Cost Item: d9a3ed1fd4eb72648840624eee45c97b
- Child Cost Item: 66cd4446eb5cfb2d0e158b81551001c1
- Child Cost Item: 6da7d861c318ad79f4fef41d6b3c0694
- Child Cost Item: 430c82946fe699a150301bbbab0d92e5
- Child Cost Item: c8fe10f869e70b2c41de70f28324a27a
- Child Cost Item: f813d087afaf03b5e4fa61fb260971d2