The Space Development Agency (SDA) has selected a California-based company to develop software capable of detecting hypersonic missiles in flight from satellite data. AFP/GETTY IMAGES
THE WATCH STAFF
The United States is addressing threats to the homeland from hypersonic missiles by developing software that uses satellite data to detect the missiles in flight. As many as 100 missile-tracking satellites are projected to be part of this network. In addition to having satellites in orbit, the Space Development Agency needs advanced software that can analyze the data collected by them and identify threats at hypersonic speeds, according to the Space News website.
Potential U.S. adversaries have boasted that their newest hypersonic missiles — capable of complex maneuvers at five times the speed of sound — can outfox U.S. and allied defenses. North Korea, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Russia have tested hypersonic weapons. Ukraine reported that Russia used a hypersonic Zircon missile in a February 2024 attack, a claim being investigated by the U.S. and its allies.
EpiSci, a California-based software company, received a $1.6 million two-year contract from the U.S. Space Development Agency (SDA) on February 6, 2024. The company will now test its AI-powered software against data collected by low Earth orbit sensors in a partnership with Raytheon Technologies, a large defense contractor with expertise in missile defense simulations and data analysis, to identify and track hypersonic threats, according to Space News.
Raytheon is an investor in EpiSci. Headquartered in Poway, California, EpiSci will use Raytheon’s missile defense simulators, starting with data from just one satellite and gradually adding more, Space News reported.
“This effort builds on EpiSci’s established expertise in signal processing technology using state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) techniques to provide warfighters a competitive advantage,” read a February 6, 2024, news release on the company’s website. “Tracking a threat traveling at Mach 10 requires the collaboration of several satellites designed to accurately detect, classify, track, and predict the trajectory of targets. This problem is compounded by the fact that defense systems must be able to maintain custody of an increasing number of moving objects. EpiSci’s modular Tactical AI is positioned to solve these emerging challenges by delivering AI/ML enhanced algorithms for rapid, low-latency detection, classification, and predictive tracking at the edge. These emerging systems will be able to intelligently focus resources on objects of interest and adapt to never-before-seen targets.”
Hypersonic weapons fly at speeds of at least Mach 5 and are highly maneuverable. They are different from ballistic missiles, which can also travel at hypersonic speeds (of at least Mach 5) but have set trajectories and limited maneuverability. There are two main categories of hypersonic weapons: hypersonic glide vehicles and hypersonic cruise missiles. Hypersonic glide vehicles are launched from a rocket. The glide vehicle then separates from the rocket and “glides” at speeds of at least Mach 5 toward a target. Hypersonic cruise missiles are powered by high-speed, air-breathing engines.
The missiles slow in their final approach, however, leaving them vulnerable to interception, Kingston Reif, a missile expert at the Arms Control Association in Washington, D.C., told The National Interest, a foreign-policy magazine. “Terminal, narrower-area defenses designed to intercept re-entry vehicles as they are bearing down on their target would in theory be more feasible, since at that stage a glider would be traveling slower than a ballistic [re-entry vehicle],” Reif explained to the magazine.
The U.S. is bolstering its defenses against hypersonic weapons on multiple fronts. On February 14, 2024, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and SDA launched six satellites into low Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The launch included two satellites for MDA’s Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) and the final four SDA Tranche 0 (T0) Tracking Layer satellites of its Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), according to a news release from the MDA.
“This launch represents a pivotal time for MDA as we enter a new phase of missile warning, tracking and defense,” said Lt. Gen. Heath Collins, director of MDA. “These HBTSS satellites are an essential step forward in our efforts to stay ahead of our adversaries.”
MDA, the U.S. Space Force and SDA are collaborating to develop HBTSS as a space sensor prototype demonstration providing fire control quality data required to defeat advanced missile threats. Ultimately, this data is critical to engagement of hypersonic glide weapons. This “birth-to-death” tracking by HBTSS will make it possible to maintain custody of missile threats from launch through intercept regardless of location, according to the release.
“Launching our Tracking satellites into the same orbit with the MDA HBTSS satellites is a win for both agencies,” Derek Tournear, director of SDA, said in the release. “We’ll be able to look at test targets from the same orbit at the same time, so that we can see how the two sensors work together. In Tranche 1, SDA will fly both sensor types as an operational system — medium-field-of-view demonstrating fire control, based on HBTSS design, and wide-field-of-view doing warning and tracking, based on T0 tracking design.”
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