Enhanced PTS-P is part of the Space Force’s Force Design and is intended to expand protected satellite communications to support warfighters operating in highly contested environments. The program is under the purview of the Acting PAE and is managed by Space Systems Command’s System Delta 88, led by U.S. Space Force Col. A.J. Ashby.

The prototype is designed to improve satellite communications performance in the presence of jamming through advanced antennas and space-based processing of the Protected Tactical Waveform, or PTW.

“Enhanced PTS-P represents another important step in delivering more resilient, protected communications capabilities to the joint force,” said Erin Carper, acting Space Force portfolio acquisition executive for Satellite Communications and Positioning, Navigation and Timing. “This capability will help ensure tactical users can operate with greater confidence in contested environments.”

As part of the Enhanced PTS-P acquisition strategy, this contract exemplifies multiple Department of War Acquisition Transformation principles by emphasizing contractor accountability and affordability.

The strategy also improves contracting processes by leveraging follow-on Other Transaction authorities, which is a flexible pathway for the government to develop and prototype new capabilities faster. Northrop Grumman was previously awarded prototype contracts and completed critical design reviews in 2021.

Most importantly, Enhanced PTS-P accelerates capability to the warfighter by utilizing an additional middle-tier acquisition period to iteratively deliver improved PTW satellite communications for earlier operational use on the path to full requirement satisfaction.

“Enhanced PTS-P pairs innovative technology with an acquisition approach designed to move faster and deliver protected SATCOM capabilities where they are needed most,” said Mozhdeh Najafabadi, PTS-P/R system program manager. “That combination is essential as we acquire and employ more resilient space capabilities.”

Enhanced PTS-P is expected to inform future Protected Tactical Satellite Communications capability development and demonstrate how the Space Force can deliver more responsive, resilient communications options to support the joint force.

Source: Space Systems Command

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These Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreements are awarded to teams led by Lockheed Martin of Sunnyvale, California, Rocket Lab USA of Long Beach, California, Northrop Grumman of Redondo Beach, California and L3Harris Technologies of Fort Wayne, Indiana, to each deliver and operate 18 space vehicles (SV) as part of the Tracking Layer constellation for Tranche 3, launching in fiscal year 2029.

“The Tracking Layer of Tranche 3, once integrated with the PWSA Transport Layer, will significantly   increase the coverage and accuracy needed to close kill chains against advanced adversary threats,” said SDA Acting Director Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo. “The constellation will include a mix of missile warning and missile tracking, with half the constellation’s payloads supporting advanced missile defense missions to pace evolving threats. The addition of these satellites will achieve near-continuous global coverage for missile warning and tracking, along with payloads capable of generating fire control quality tracks for missile defense. This is a prime example of spiral development: the ability to rapidly integrate the next generation of technologies, and to proliferate the most impactful capabilities for increased capacity and lethality.”

The TRKT3, organized across eight orbital planes, builds upon SDA’s previous generations, Tranche 1 and Tranche 2, by expanding and enhancing coverage to provide global, persistent indication, detection, warning, tracking, and identification of conventional and advanced missile threats, including hypersonic missile systems. Each SV is equipped with an IR mission payload, optical communication terminals (OCTs), and Ka-band communications payloads as well as an S-band backup telemetry, tracking, and command (TT&C) system.

The Tracking Layer initiates the PWSA’s proliferation of missile defense sensing, or fire control, in support of Homeland Defense and Theater Defense. The PWSA is integrated into the U.S. Space Force’s holistic hybrid missile warning/missile tracking/missile defense architecture to support joint force operations and ensure warfighting success across all domains.

Source: SDA

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GE Aerospace Chairman and CEO H. Lawrence Culp, Jr. said, “Wes’s extensive leadership, engineering and aerospace and defense industry experience will help our company continue to drive shareholder value, support our customers, especially our warfighters, and invent the future of flight. We are pleased to have him join our board of directors, and I look forward to working with him.”

Culp continued, “I would also like to thank Steve for his commitment to setting up GE Aerospace and GE Vernova as standalone public companies positioned to drive long-term value for customers, shareholders and employees. Steve’s oversight made GE stronger, and his astute counsel helped put GE Aerospace in the highly desirable position it is in today. He has been a trusted partner to me and the entire leadership team.”

Bush brings nearly 40 years of experience in the aerospace industry. Bush previously held a variety of leadership roles at Northrop Grumman including serving as the company’s chief operating officer, chief financial officer, and president of its Space Technology business. Prior to the acquisition of TRW by Northrop Grumman, Bush also served as president and chief executive officer for Aeronautical Systems. He will join the GE Aerospace board effective December 1 and has been appointed to serve as a member of the audit committee. Bush is also a director at General Motors, Dow Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.

Source: GE Aerospace

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NROL-174 marks another successful mission in a long-standing partnership with SSC through the Rocket Systems Launch Program (RSLP). RSLP, the small launch counterpart to the National Security Space Launch program, focuses on the small launch market and primarily launches more risk-tolerant experimental, research and development, responsive space, and operational missions.

“This launch is a testament to what the national security launch enterprise is able to achieve,” said Laura Robinson, Deputy Director, NRO Office of Space Launch, and NROL-174 Mission Director. “The NROL-174 Minotaur IV rocket was once a Peacekeeper ICBM that sat watch 24/7 in support of our nation’s nuclear deterrent. Now modified for space launch, it completed its final mission of placing a national security payload on orbit, a credit to the decades-long dedication of those who were part of the missile’s early development, maintenance and operations, and innovative conversion into the Minotaur IV rocket. It was truly a team effort.”

NROL-174 is the third NRO mission launched from SSC RSLP’s Orbital/Suborbital Program-3 contract. Today’s Minotaur IV rocket launch follows previous Minotaur family of rocket launches with NROL-129 in July 2020 and NROL-111 in June 2021, both from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. NRO last launched a Minotaur rocket from VSFB with NROL-66 in 2011.

“Superb launch. This was our third Minotaur launch for the NRO since July 2020 and just like then, this mission was textbook…truly outstanding,” said Lt. Col. Steve Hendershot, SSC’s Materiel Leader for RSLP. “We have a great relationship with our partners at the NRO, and watching today’s launch you saw our teamwork, discipline, and trust pay off strong.”

Over the past two years, NRO has launched more than 150 satellites, creating the largest and most capable government constellation on orbit in our nation’s history. Continuing with this momentum, 2025 is set to be another dynamic year, with approximately a dozen NRO launches scheduled.

Source: NRO

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MT&S will build additional scale for Serco in North America, growing our business to beyond $2bn of revenue and $200m of profit.  It brings new capabilities and access to a broader base of customers, which will provide further opportunities for Serco to grow organically in both North America and internationally.

Commenting on the acquisition, Mark Irwin, Serco Group chief executive, said,

“We have approximately doubled revenue and more than trebled profit in Serco’s North America business in recent years through a successful combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions.  MT&S provides an excellent opportunity to continue that success.”

Irwin continued, “The acquisition increases our scale, capabilities and growth potential in US defense, the largest defense market in the world, as well as providing solutions we can offer to our customers worldwide.  The acquired capability delivers comprehensive, critical, technology-enabled services fully aligned to the US military’s focus on enhancing warfighting standards and readiness through solutions that are both efficient and effective.”

Source: Serco

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Blake Bullock, vice president, military space systems, Northrop Grumman, said, “Thanks to a bold vision from our customers — and enabled by Northrop Grumman’s end-to-end capabilities, deep mission understanding and unmatched MILSATCOM legacy — our service members and allies can now count on reliable, secure communications in this strategically important region while next-generation systems are developed.”

ASBM is a historic partnership between Space Norway and the U.S. Space Force, marking the first time an operational U.S. military payload is hosted on an international commercial space mission. This first-of-its-kind accomplishment is the latest chapter in Northrop Grumman’s long history of supporting protected MILSATCOM missions. The company has developed, built and delivered protected MILSATCOM payloads for every protected MILSATCOM program since the Milstar program, which launched starting in the 1990s.

The EPS-R payloads are operated by the Northrop Grumman-led Control and Planning Segment ground system, which has been upgraded with a common baseline software to operate both EPS and EPS-R, eliminating the need for training on two separate control systems.

Source: Northrop Grumman

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Pablo Pezzimenti, vice president, integrated national systems, Northrop Grumman, said, “DSaT demonstrates our capability to move data at the speed of future warfare to best support the warfighter’s targeting needs while not bound by land or sea. Delivering space-based data to an aircraft enhances the flexibility to process, exploit and distribute intelligence for faster decision making when every moment matters.”

Leveraging Northrop Grumman’s tactical edge portfolio, DSaT provides intelligence collection reaching beyond the visual line of sight of local sensors and integrates data into a civilian aircraft. Sponsored by the Department of the Army Headquarters G-2’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Task Force, phase two of DSaT aligns with the Army’s High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES) platform to provide a deep sensing capability for the warfighter. When combined with HADES, DSaT is positioned to support a mission roadmap that offers a complete solution for ISR and target nomination. Phase one of DSaT was previously demonstrated at EDGE 23.

Source: Northrop Grumman

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The test flight, which began in Deadhorse, Alaska, and flew within 100 miles of the North Pole, utilized Northrop Grumman’s proprietary navigation systems, mission management computer and upgraded operational flight programs to successfully demonstrate Triton’s ability to navigate in the Arctic. The test aircraft collected navigation data during the five-hour flight and remained within U.S. and Canadian airspace for the duration.

The demonstration also validated ground-based GPS alignment and initialization procedures to enable operations from runways above 70 degrees north latitude. As a high-altitude, long-endurance platform, Triton is suited for missions in the High North by operating well above Arctic winds and avoiding the range and speed impacts that limit mission performance at medium altitudes.

Jane Bishop, vice president and general manager, global surveillance division, Northrop Grumman, said, “Flight operations in austere and frigid conditions present unique navigation challenges. Our demonstration highlights Triton’s ability to successfully perform in that challenging environment.”

Capt. Josh Guerre, Triton program manager, U.S. Navy, said, “Arctic regions are an increasingly important theater of operations with unique threats and environments. We are ready to support those mission sets for domestic and international customers.”

Built for the U.S. Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force, the multi-intelligence MQ-4C Triton supports a wide range of missions, including maritime patrol, signals intelligence and search and rescue. These aircraft operate at a higher altitude and have longer endurance than medium-altitude systems. They also incorporate simultaneous multi-intelligence sensor operations that allow them to deliver an exponential increase in mission information.

Source: Northrop Grumman

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The Digital Pathfinder project demonstrated how the company’s fully digital engineering ecosystem reduces engineering rework, accelerates schedule and reduces costs, offering advantages to customers on future aircraft programs. By utilizing real-world experiences gained on programs, including the B-21 Raider, the company continues to evolve its collaborative digital ecosystem, which connects the company, customers and supplier partners through the design, development and test phases on a variety of current and future programs.

“We continue to refine these digital tools and capabilities to continuously improve them for future efforts,” said Colin Miller, vice president, engineering, Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems. “This project demonstrates how high-fidelity models within our digital ecosystem serve as a single source of truth to streamline testing and certification on future aircraft, significantly saving cost and time for our customer.”

The digital ecosystem cut engineering rework and redesign to less than one percent, compared to the 15-20% experienced using traditional methods. The demonstration also leveraged high-fidelity models combined with rigorous and approved model validation schemes to reduce requirements for ground and flight tests. Looking forward, these models show the potential to significantly reduce the workload required to determine airworthiness, offering further cost and schedule savings opportunities.

Through Digital Pathfinder, Northrop Grumman’s high integrity digital thread connected engineers, customers and stakeholders in a virtual environment, allowing them to proactively foresee and solve the types of problems that typically plague acquisition programs up front and early — greatly improving program performance.

Source: Northrop Grumman

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Krys Moen, vice president, advanced mission capabilities, Northrop Grumman, said, “Dozens of successful flights with EMRIS demonstrated the ability to reduce development timelines and lower program costs by leveraging our partnerships with, and advancements across, all military services. Our solutions utilize digital engineering and advancements in microelectronics to provide agile capabilities for both crewed and uncrewed platforms.”

EMRIS was designed using common building blocks and software containerization allowing for rapid, cost-effective production, providing these advanced capabilities to the warfighters quickly.

EMRIS’s fully digital Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) utilizes technology from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Arrays on Commercial Timescales program, combined with the government’s open architecture standards. By applying the flexibility of a digital AESA, EMRIS can perform multiple functions including radar, electronic warfare and communications, simultaneously.

As part of EMRIS’ flights, Northrop Grumman demonstrated the ability to quickly leverage technologies developed for other programs to adapt multiple fielded capabilities into EMRIS. The second EMRIS array is entering testing, and Northrop Grumman is in the process of demonstrating its scalable nature by fabricating two smaller EMRIS apertures for lower cost and size-constrained application demonstrations.

EMRIS demonstrates the value of a product line designed from the beginning to leverage open, scalable software along with modular digital building blocks to enable a common sensor baseline. All work is in support of a wide range of existing platform upgrades as well as new emerging opportunities.

Source: Northrop Grumman

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