Raytheon Three-GIRS Sensor Clears Hurdle

By Amy Butler

Raytheon has completed a batch of ground tests for its developmental Third-Generation Infrared System (Three-GIRS) sensor, and company officials say a full, space-qualified version could be delivered to the government in 24 months to support missile warning requirements.

The non-imaging infrared sensor is one of two developed under the U.S. Air Force’s Three-GIRS program (formerly called the Alternate Infrared Satellite System, or AIRSS).

SAIC

A second was crafted by a SAIC, and is set to be boosted into orbit as a demonstration on an SES Americom communications satellite in 2010. Raytheon is exploring options to get its sensor into orbit as well, according to Doug Marimon, Three-GIRS program manager at the company.

Raytheon’s contract, awarded in 2006, was worth $54 million.

Thermal vacuum, vibration and electro-magnetic interference (EMI) trials are complete on Raytheon’s sensor. This version of the sensor — four separate 2,000-by-2,000 pixel focal plane arrays linked into one aperture — was not fully qualified for space operation. For example, the sensor used a ground-based cryo-cooler rather than a fully integrated system for the trials, Marimon says.

SAIC’s Three-GIRS design includes four separate apertures.

Raytheon work

Completion of the testing finishes Raytheon’s obligations on the contract; but the next step is to make the sensor space flyable, Marimon says.

The goal of Three-GIRS program was to explore new overhead, non-imaging infrared sensor concepts in hopes of reducing the complexity and cost of developing a next-generation missile warning satellite constellation. The Space-Based Infrared System, now under development by Lockheed Martin, required high technology and systems engineering risk. It has cost $11 billion to develop, more than twice the original estimate.

Marimon says the Three-GIRS sensor could be produced and integrated onto a spacecraft with “substantial cost savings.”

Photo: Lockheed Martin