Lockheed Martin’s Space Fence System has passed the Air Force’s critical design review, marking the end of the design phase and the beginning of radar production and facility construction, the company announced Sept. 28. The large-scale digital radar, turn-key facility, and other parts of the system passed the review after a demonstration of a small-scale system that detected and tracked objects orbiting in space. The Space Fence will use S-band ground-based radar to detect and track objects and debris in space to prevent collisions, and will replace the existing Air Force Space Surveillance System. Lockheed in M?arch began construction on a Space Fence site at Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Initial operational capability is now scheduled for late 2018.
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…