SBIRS is designed to provide enhanced missile warning capabilities and support U.S. missile defense, technical intelligence and battle-space characterization.

The software will provide for the necessary functionality of the payload's Pointing and Control Assembly, which operates the spacecraft's highly-sensitive staring and scanning sensors, Lockheed Martin said. The scanning sensor will provide for short revisit times over its full field of view, while the staring sensor will be used for step-stare or dedicated stare operations over smaller areas, the report said.

"Working closely with our Air Force customer, the team has achieved another major milestone in the development of this first-of-its-kind satellite," said Mark Crowley, Lockheed Martin's SBIRS vice president. "The improved infrared event detection and reporting capabilities provided by SBIRS will play an integral role in our nation's information and intelligence architecture."

The software has been delivered to Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, Azusa, Calif., where it will be integrated with the Signal Processing Assembly, a key payload component that extracts the infrared "signal" from the background noise and clutter. The completed payload is scheduled to be delivered to Lockheed Martin's facilities in Sunnyvale, Calif., in mid-2007 for final spacecraft assembly, integration and test in preparation for launch in late 2008.

Lockheed Martin said its engineers were also in the final stages of an important SBIRS spacecraft test phase at Sunnyvale, Calif. Known as Spacecraft Functional Testing, or SCFT, this test is designed to verify the functional requirements of the geosynchronous orbit, or GEO, spacecraft and assure that the structure is assembled to specification, the company said.

Following successful completion of SCFT, Lockheed Martin engineers will prepare the SBIRS spacecraft for engineering thermal vacuum testing to verify its spacecraft performance at temperature extremes greater than those expected during on-orbit operations.

Lockheed Martin is currently under contract to provide two payloads in highly elliptical orbit, or HEO, and two GEO satellites, as well as fixed and mobile ground-based assets to receive and process the infrared data. The company said it had delivered both HEO payloads and was on track to launch the first GEO satellite in late 2008.

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