U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Heath Collins, director of the Missile Defense Agency and a 2024 Wash100 Award recipient, shared that the two Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor-equipped satellites will be tested in about a week, National Defense reported.
Speaking at a Center for Strategic and International Studies-hosted discussion, Collins explained that the system MDA launched in February is meant to track hypersonic ballistic missiles from above, unlike the traditional sensors that are ground-based.
“And so instead of being down, looking up to find a hypersonic, you really want to be high, looking down to track hypersonic. That’s what Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor is all about,” said Collins.
The initial hypersonic testbed calibration flight is planned to have a target going at up to hypersonic speeds in view of the satellites.
The MDA leader elaborated, “It’ll be the first hypersonic target they’ve seen and run through the entire fire control kill chain, looking at sensitivity, timeliness and accuracy of those two systems to feed into and be applied against the demonstration objectives that we have for [Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor] and potentially inform changes … or substantiate that that will work, and then that feeds forward into [the Space Development Agency’s] future.”
The next system test is expected later in the year, according to Collins.