The HBTSS program’s objective is to detect and track traditional and emerging missile threats using infrared sensors and advanced processing capability. Photo: L3Harris

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has awarded L3Harris Technologies a $121 million contract to build space flight hardware to demonstrate the company’s solution for the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) program. The HBTSS is one of several proposed missions within the U.S. Department of Defense’s next-generation proliferated Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) space architecture. L3Harris said in a Monday release that this award follows on a 2019 study contract. 

L3Harris has also been selected for two other layers of the missile warning and defense architecture, including a Space Development Agency (SDA) contract to build and launch four space vehicles to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles. In addition, the U.S. Air Force selected L3Harris to design prototype payload and mission concepts for what has evolved into the U.S. Space Force’s Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) track custody demonstration.

“L3Harris is leveraging our long-standing expertise in infrared remote sensing, advanced processing and communications, in addition to our recent wins in responsive space missions, to enable the Missile Defense Agency to quickly field significantly more capable and cost-effective mission solutions to address these threats,” Ed Zoiss, president of L3Harris Space and Airborne Systems said. 

In the company’s recent quarterly results, L3Harris Space and Airborne Systems posted $1.3 billion in revenue for the Fourth Quarter (Q4), a 4.3% increase over the same time period in 2019. The company attributed this increase to a ramp on the F-35 platform in Mission Avionics, and growth in Space from recent program wins.