The Air Force recently awarded BAE Systems a $46 million contract extension to continue operations and maintenance support for USAF’s Solid State Phased Radar System (SSPARS), which extends the company’s support for the missile warning and space surveillance capability through 2018, according to a recent company statement. The total value of BAE Systems’ support contract, from its award in 2006 to 2018, will be approximately $550 million. BAE Systems will support Air Force Space Command’s 21st Space Wing, by maintaining all day operations and maintenance support at each SSPARS location around the world. The SSPRS system is made up of five sites at USAF bases and stations across the northern hemisphere, including Beale AFB, Calif., Cape Cod AFS, Mass., Clear AFS, Alaska, RAF Fylingdales, U.K., and Thule AB, Greenland. The 21st SW maintains an array of radar capabilities at these sites, to include communications systems, precision measurement tools, sea launched ballistic missile warning capabilities, ballistic missile early warning and space surveillance radar, and ground base midcourse defense radar.
Australia’s military will help the Pentagon pursue so-called “air-breathing” hypersonic weapons and more under the U.S.-run Allied Prototyping Initiative, the U.S. Defense Department said Nov. 30. The Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCIFiRE) initiative “will be essential to the future of hypersonic research and development, ensuring the U.S. and…