Raytheon secures Air Force missile warning contract

Raytheon Company has secured a five-year, $197 million contract Air Force contract to aid the branch in modernizing its missile warning architecture.

The effort involves developing the Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution (FORGE) Mission Data Processing Application Framework (MDPAF), which enables Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) satellite data processing from both the Air Force’s evolving Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) constellation and the future Next Gen OPIR constellation.

“The U.S. government’s global satellite network produces a constant flood of data — petabytes and petabytes of it every day,” Dave Wajsgras, president of Raytheon IIS, said. “The Air Force wants to open that network up so they can use as much of that data as possible. That’s a huge transformation not just for the service, but for the whole government.”

The initiative would also enable the Air Force to process data from other civil and environmental sensors.

“Essentially, this is a smartphone model,” Wajsgras said. “We’ve built an operating system that everyone can build applications for – from Raytheon to the Air Force to universities to small companies. These applications allow the system to process specific types of data.”

Wajsgras said a prime benefit of incorporating new applications is the system can be used beyond its intended mission, noting an application could be built allowing civil agencies to use the same satellite data to help detect forest fires, volcanic activity, agricultural changes and surges in electric power consumption.