Raytheon team designs military imaging satellites for DARPA SeeMe program

Raytheon Missile Systems announced that it was awarded a $1.5 million contract by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA.) To improve warfighter situational awareness, the Company will design small satellites for the first phase of Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements (SeeMe) program.

DARPA's SeeMe program will deliver on-demand imagery information to warfighters on the battlefield through a constellation of low-cost satellites that the Department of Defense can schedule for launch based on its operational tempos.

Raytheon will manufacture the small, lightweight SeeMe satellites on its cutting-edge missile assembly lines, which produce exoatmospheric kill vehicles of similar standards.

The contract stipulates that the Raytheon team must build half a dozen satellites in 2013 for the second, ground testing phase of the SeeMe program. Sierra Nevada Corporation, University of Arizona, and SRI International will be assisting Raytheon with design work and production.

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Thales Alenia Space wins MILSATCOM study contract with France

Thales Alenia Space secured a design contract with the DGA (Direction Générale de l'Armement,) the French defense procurement agency. The Cannes, France-based satellite manufacturer will be studying future military satellite communications capacity set to enter service in 2019 on behalf of the French Ministry of Defense.

The DGA-sponsored study will fit into the plan to replace the two Syracuse III satellites that Thales Alenia Space built and operated. The study will also complement the Sicral 2 and Athena Fidus satellites developed and built by Thales Alenia Space and Italy in a cooperative venture.

Thales Alenia Space will analyze the French military's future needs for satellite communications (MILSATCOM) capacity. It will aso pore over acquisition procedures and collaboration schemes that will hasten development, ensure efficiency, and save money for all participants.

As the industrial partner of the French and Italian ministries of defense and space agencies, Thales Alenia Space helped create the first two -and, so far, the only two- collaborative European programs on space communications for security and defense.

The satellite manufacturer will face significant issues throughout the course of replacing existing satellite communications capacity. Thales Alenia Space must ensure strategic security, ensure the delivery of critical MILSATCOM capacity when its partner nations deploy their armed forces on foreign soil, and accomplish all of this within a budget limited by the ongoing economic crisis.