SDA Director Derek Tournear said he expects the new FOO Fighter ground segment to be up and running in December 2026, before the first satellites are launched.
By Theresa HitchensEnterprise-wide training: the Army’s $3.5B program for multi-service combat readiness
The competition for Warfighter Training and Readiness Solutions will bring together training networks, combat training centers and live ranges across the DoD enterprise.
“On their aircraft and their ground units, they’ll be able to talk directly to us with Link 16 to our Tranche 0 satellites that are on orbit now,” Derek Tournear said at the 2024 Space Symposium.
By Michael Marrow
“We need a budget to be able to continue to fund this,” said Space Development Agency Director Derek Tournear. “We always assume there will be a continuing resolution for a few months, but not six to 12.”
By Michael Marrow “We truly have demonstrated that the vision of JADC2 and the vision of the Joint Fires Network is a reality and we can do it,” SDA Director Derek Tournear told Breaking Defense.
By Theresa Hitchens
“Here’s the beauty of the spiral development program. I don’t know what Tranche 3 looks like. All I know is it’s more of what was on Tranche 2, and it is most likely going to be new capabilities,” SDA Director Derek Tournear said Thursday. “I don’t want to define what those capabilities are now.”
By Theresa Hitchens SDA Director Derek Tournear also shed some more light on the agency’s new, highly secretive FOO Fighter program to develop new fire control quality tracking satellites.
By Theresa Hitchens
Tournear said today that there will be a total of 216 Transport Layer satellites orbited for what the agency calls its Tranche 2 configuration, which will begin launching in 2026.
By Theresa Hitchens
How the Army plans to make enterprise-wide training a reality
In addition to training, the Army’s $3.5B program called Warfighter Training and Readiness Solutions will bring an enterprise approach to the sustainment and maintenance of training systems.
For the newest military arm, this year saw it plant the seeds for important changes in everything from strategy to acquisition.
By Theresa Hitchens
While the timeframe for certifying SDA’s Tracking Layer as part of the nuclear attack sensor network remains unclear, SDA Director Derek Tournear said there is “plenty of time” to get it done.
By Theresa Hitchens “Translator” payloads are necessary because many of today’s commercial remote sensing providers do not, and will not, have the ability to equip their satellites with optical inter-satellite links (OISLs) required to link to the agency’s Transport Layer birds, said SDA Director Derek Tournear.
By Theresa Hitchens
SDA Director Derek Tournear said his shop will remain its own when it formally joins the Space Force in coming weeks, giving the service another acquisition outlet.
By Theresa Hitchens
“We’ll do away with the GEOs, and the big, exquisite expensive satellites,” said SDA Director Derek Tournear.
By Theresa Hitchens
“What we’re trying to do is just like you do with your financial portfolios, where you diversify your financial portfolio, so you don’t go broke if one stock takes a tumble. We want to do the same thing with our satellite architecture,” said CSO Gen. Jay Raymond.
By Theresa Hitchens
A decision about whether to go forward this year with Tracking Layer Tranche 1 or wait until fiscal 2023 funds are available could happen “within the next few weeks,” said SDA Director Derek Tournear.
By Theresa Hitchens
