Raytheon Intelligence & Space discusses what Greek mythology can tell us about missile defense.
By RAYTHEON INTELLIGENCE & SPACE on September 14, 2020 at 11:11 PM
To the ancient Greeks, Argus Panoptes was a giant with a thousand eyes who always kept watch, even in his sleep. That constant vigilance resonates with those responsible for keeping the United States and its friends and allies safe. It’s why the U.S. Air Force, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Raytheon Technologies are creating a new space-based blanket of advanced sensors – to keep “eyes always on” in the lookout for potential missile attacks.
“The pace of technology is on a near-exponential curve right now,” said Wallis Laughrey, a vice president of Raytheon Intelligence & Space, a business of Raytheon Technologies. “Our adversaries are testing new weapons that require a new means of detection.”
The challenge is to field those new means quickly. To that end, the Air Force designated Next Gen OPIR – a system of satellites to provide early warning of intercontinental and theater ballistic missile launches – as a Go-Fast program. It replaces the Space-Based Infrared System by providing more survivable and resilient missile warning from geostationary orbit.
The Next Gen OPIR program consists of three GEO and two polar satellites, all of which are expected to be in orbit by 2029.
“Our ability to counter the threat is only as good as our ability to see it,” Laughrey said.
Defense contractor Lockheed Martin turned to Raytheon Technologies to design the payload for its Next Gen OPIR Block 0 resilient missile-warning satellites.
Read more at: https://breakingdefense.com/2020/09/the-eyes-of-argus/