<\/p>\n
Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org<\/p>\n
The Space Force\u2019s strategy to replace its fleet of neighborhood watch satellites in geosynchronous orbit\u00a0includes\u00a0plans to field\u00a0multiple satellite constellations, one focused on reconnaissance and one focused on surveillance that will\u00a0autonomously\u00a0track objects in GEO, the service said in a Nov. 26 notice<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Officials had previously described plans for the reconnaissance fleet, dubbed RG-XX, with spacecraft that will be able to refuel and maneuver to get a better look at particular objects or threats in GEO.\t\t<\/p>\n The surveillance fleet, in contrast, will be \u201ccapable of wide-area volume search and tasked collections on priority objects,\u201d according to a request for information from Space Systems Command, focused specifically on wide-field-of-view electro-optical sensors. It will be complementary to RG-XX, the request added.<\/p>\n \u201cThe primary objective of this proliferated constellation will be to autonomously\u00a0search for, detect, and revisit Resident Space Objects in and around the Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit-belt,\u201d the RFI states.<\/p>\n Space domain awareness is a top priority for the Space Force and U.S. Space Command. Officials want the ability to better track threats and more insight into\u00a0potential adversaries\u2019\u00a0on-orbit operations.\u00a0Along with space-based\u00a0sensors, the service has a network of ground\u00a0radars\u00a0that track activity in orbit as well as launches<\/a>.<\/p>\n Surveillance is focused on more general, prolonged monitoring\u2014which wide-field-of-view sensors can provide\u2014while reconnaissance is focused on specific objects and targets on tighter timelines\u2014something for which maneuverable satellites would be particularly useful.<\/p>\n Until now, the missions have been combined under the Geosynchronous Situational Awareness Program, or GSSAP. The Space Force\u00a0fielded\u00a0its first two GSSAP satellites in 2014 and has since launched four more.\u00a0It deactivated one of those satellites in 2023<\/a>, leaving five active spacecraft in the constellation. The service\u00a0had planned to send two more spacecraft to orbit this year, but that mission, USSF-87, has been pushed to the first quarter of 2026.\t\t<\/p>\n Officials have been publicly discussing<\/a> a\u00a0replacement for\u00a0GSSAP since early 2024 and released a draft solicitation for RG-XX in October.<\/a> The service is exploring off-the-shelf solutions\u00a0and wants\u00a0RG-XX\u00a0satellites to have refueling ports so that their fuel can be topped off in orbit, extending their range and service life.\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0new notice to industry on the surveillance constellation\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0provide as much detail, including any timing of a development effort, though it notes that the service is\u00a0eyeing some\u00a0\u201cnear-term\u201d\u00a0acquisition decisions and is\u00a0interested in low-cost options that could go into production in less than two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Also unclear is how many\u00a0surveillance\u00a0satellites USSF\u00a0intends to buy, though the notice\u00a0states\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0considering a \u201cproliferated constellation.\u201d\u00a0The service\u00a0hasn\u2019t\u00a0projected quantities for RG-XX either. Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, the Space Force\u2019s acting\u00a0acquisition\u00a0executive, told reporters in September that numbers will depend on\u00a0how much funding the service gets for the effort.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy intent, bluntly, is to buy as many as possible,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is clearly a mission need where we need a lot as rapidly as possible.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[166017,166018,79,193,99544,166019,35363],"class_list":{"0":"post-325640","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-gssap","9":"tag-rg-xx","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space","12":"tag-space-domain-awareness","13":"tag-space-surveillance-network","14":"tag-surveillance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}