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Trident Systems Selected By Northrop Grumman To Provide Electronics For U.S. Missile-Tracking Satellites

By Trident Systems | Mar 28, 2023

FAIRFAX, VA, MAR-28, 2023 – Northrop Grumman has selected Trident Systems, Inc. to provide processing and storage electronics for 14 of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 1 Tracking Layer satellites.  Under this subcontract, Trident will deliver developmental and flight units in support of the payload, which is designed to track missiles and other hypersonic objects from Low Earth Orbit.

“Our products are well suited for this type of payload and are available on SDA’s rapid timelines” said Dan Hibbard, VP of Trident’s Space Electronics Systems business unit, adding, “This competitive selection highlights our continued growth, especially in the area of higher rate manufacturing of our products.”  The program selection comes at a time when Trident is expanding to a new production facility, scheduled to open in mid-2023 in the Northern Virginia area.

The units for the Tracking Layer satellites will be based on Trident’s proven line of UDRT On-Board Processors (OBPs) providing real-time compression, combined with an innovative, high-performance storage solution.  Packaged in a SWaP-optimized 3U VPX chassis, the unit-level solution is a radiation effects mitigated design, reprogrammable on-orbit and employs features to specifically address cybersecurity.

“Northrop Grumman has been a great customer to work with, and we’re excited to support them on this program,” said Hibbard. “We look forward to supporting this Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture program and others in the future.”

ABOUT TRIDENT:  Trident’s Space Electronic Systems (SES) is Trident’s business area dedicated to the research, development, design and manufacture of Software Defined Radios (SDRs), On-Board Processors (OBPs) and storage solutions for space. Using a rapid response, radiation effects mitigated design approach, SES has become a leader in low cost, high performance, open architecture solutions for multi-function RF and processing systems.