RTX's Advanced Ground System for Space-based Missile Warning Now Operational

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An advanced ground system for space-based missile warning developed by Raytheon, an RTX business, is now operational at the U.S. Space Force's Overhead Persistent Infrared Battlespace Awareness Center (OBAC).

The Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution Mission Data Processing Application Framework (FORGE MDPAF) is a modular and adaptable framework that enables fast integration of mission focused applications to process, exploit and disseminate information from satellites.

The current version of FORGE MDPAF is the result of the company working through regular incremental development releases to optimize and add new iterative capabilities. As a next step, FORGE MDPAF will move from supporting OBAC operations to full missile warning detection.

"There are thousands of satellites on orbit today and space is an increasingly contested domain," said Sandy Brown, vice president for Mission Solutions & Payloads for Raytheon. "FORGE MDPAF is designed to scale in a way that can handle the current volume of missile warning data and grow to support future proliferated space data processing needs."

FORGE MDPAF is used to process Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) satellite data from both the U.S. Space Force's Space Based Infrared System constellation and the future Next Gen OPIR constellation, as well as processing data from other civil and environmental sensors.