Tag: Missile

SpaceX is now in the business of building satellites that do more than beam broadband around the globe. Elon Musk’s space company is one of two companies awarded a contract from the Space Development Agency (part of the US Department of Defense) to build four satellites each that can track missile threats from low-Earth orbit.

SpaceX will receive over $149 million for the job, while major defense contractor L3 Harris will receive over $193 million, SDA announced on Monday. 

The satellites will be developed around an infrared sensor with a wide field of view that can track even hypersonic missiles. The SpaceX satellite will be based around the guts of the Starlink satellite, but the sensor will come from another supplier, Space Development Agency Director Derek Tournear told SpaceNews. 

L3 Harris will be producing the full satellites, including the sensor, in house.  

SpaceX has already launched several hundred Starlink satellites on its way to eventually producing tens of thousands if its broadband mega-constellation is to meet the company’s full ambitions. 

The eight satellites will be part of the first generation of what the SDA calls “the tracking layer” and must be designed to interface with “transport layer” satellites being developed by Lockheed Martin and York Space Systems. Transport layer satellites communicate with tracking layer satellites and route the information they gather to where it’s needed on Earth. 

The companies will be required to deliver the satellites by September 2022, and if all works well, the US military could order up to 30 more of the tracking satellites to add to the system in the coming years. 

Californian company AeroVironment
AVAV
aims to disrupt the multibillion-dollar tactical missile industry with its new SwitchBlade 600 loitering missile. Such missiles, sometimes termed kamikaze drones, are propeller-driven, and fly slower but with greater endurance than traditional missiles. Unlike traditional missiles, they can cruise over the battlefield for an extended period looking for targets; if a target proves to be invalid when seen at close range, they can be waved off and go hunting for another. AeronVironment’s small SwitchBlade has proved highly effective in Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Now the company is upsizing with a bigger, faster, and more powerful version able to take on a wider set of targets at longer range.

AeroVironment’s existing SwitchBlade loitering missile is one of the U.S. military’s best-kept secrets. It’s a five-pound, tube-launched weapon that can locate, identify, and destroy a target from several miles away while the operator remains securely behind cover, watching via video feed. Thousands have been used, often against “high-value targets” (aka insurgent leadership) but few details have ever been released. The small warhead delivers a focused blast of shrapnel which can take out a group of individuals or a pickup truck; it can dive vertically to hit targets in trenches or foxholes. But the generally secret nature of the operations it is used in means there are more pictures circulating even of the shadowy six-bladed Hellfire R9X ‘Ninja missile’ than SwitchBlade.

The existing SwitchBlade now becomes the SwitchBlade 300, with the unveiling of the bigger SwitchBlade 600. This is a 50-pound weapon, launched from a ground vehicle, drone or helicopter, with a forty-minute flight time and a top speed of 115 mph. It can travel 50