MDA director provides rough sketch of possible space-based missile defense sensor layer

By: Jen Judson

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Missile defense leaders within the Pentagon as well as Congress are pushing for more missile defense capability in space and the Missile Defense Agency Director Gen. Samuel Greaves laid out a rough idea of what a space-based missile defense sensor layercould look like.

The missile defense community has been talking “seriously” about a sensor layer in space “actively over the last year,” Greaves said in an August 8 speech at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium.

While many decisions still have to be made regarding requirements definitions, development paths and the acquisition process, “the key thing,” Greaves said, “is that there is serious consideration and support being given to the need to deploy these space sensors because we must do so.”

Greaves laid out a very rough sketch of what the agency is looking for to build a robust sensor layer.

First, the MDA might use something like a current system from the U.S. Air Force — the Overhead Persistent Infrared OPIR Global Scanning system — to alert and characterize activity in space, essentially “to be the bell ringer if something is going on,” Greaves said.

Full Article: https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/smd/2018/08/08/mda-director-provides-rough-sketch-of-possible-space-based-missile-defense-sensor-layer/