Although the technology is still undergoing tests, Air Force officials are touting the benefits of the Space Fence system, which detected the breakup field from an India anti-satellite test.
The event occurred during a recent scheduled endurance exercise of the new space surveillance radar, noting as MICROSAT-R was expected to pass through the un-cued surveillance fence, Space Fence automatically issued a breakup alert, indicating there were multiple objects within proximity.
Space Fence observed a significant amount of debris tracks surrounding the time of the event crossing labeled as uncorrelated targets. Long-arc tracking was initiated within the orbital debris cloud to form accurate initial orbit determinations.
The system was able to predict and correlate the next crossing time automatically.
“The criticality of space assets to both national defense and the world economy cannot be understated,” Rob Smith, vice president and general manager of Radar and Sensor Systems for Lockheed Martin, said. “As multiple new mega constellations consisting of thousands of satellites become a reality and the space domain continues to become more congested, the demand for more accurate and timely space situational awareness data will be of the utmost importance to the warfighter.”
Col. Stephen Purdy, director of the Space Superiority Systems Directorate, Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, said Space Fence is already proving itself as a capable system even before becoming operational.
“The Indian test showcased Space Fence’s capabilities in a real-world event,” Purdy said. “The system was able to quickly respond to a highly dynamic situation providing critical data. Space Fence is the latest in a long line of capabilities we are collectively bringing to the warfighter as we continue to build out space capabilities for the United States.”