Ed Zoiss discusses missile defense space capabilities on a webinar with Via Satellite.

As the United States navigates an increasingly complex global landscape, L3Harris President of Space and Airborne Systems Ed Zoiss addressed the evolving threats in space. Zoiss spoke to how L3Harris technologies are currently supporting national security, but also how he sees opportunity for space capabilities to be a larger part of national defense. 

Zoiss oversees the Space & Airborne Systems, which covers solutions in intelligence, surveillance, small satellites, electronic warfare, avionics, wireless solutions and C4I systems. With an understanding of the technological challenges at hand, he outlined the importance of delivering next-generation proliferated space architectures and harnessing the power of hardware, software, and AI technologies. 

This Q&A has been edited and adapted from a Via Satellite webinar sponsored by L3Harris. Watch the rest of the conversation here.

VIA SATELLITE: What are L3Harris’ top accomplishments in the space business across 2024?

Zoiss: We launched five missile warning and missile defense satellites, and they just celebrated their one-year birthday. That was four satellites for the Space Development Agency (SDA) Tranche 0 and one satellite for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), for the Hypersonic Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) program. The missile warning and missile defense satellites are continuing to be exercised every day. 

We also launched a satellite for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which was key for weather in the northern hemisphere. We delivered the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. We were also awarded SDA’s Tranche 2, which is the next set of 18 satellites for the proliferated missile warning missile defense architecture. We are headed toward our critical design reviews, as well as a couple of key milestones on that program to continue to advance that technology.

VIA SATELLITE: What challenges do ballistic missile and hypersonic missile threats pose, and how is L3Harris helping to address them?

Zoiss: Threats traditionally were ballistic, meaning that as soon as you understood the launch angle, you understood where the endpoint was. There was no need for any nation to have custody of the incoming trajectory throughout its entire travels. But all that changed with hypersonics. Hypersonics is a new class of missiles, now maneuverable around seaborne and land radar. It’s able to strike in locations that are not determined by its ballistic trajectory. So, a new class of missile warning, missile defense has to be employed. 

The only way to defeat these now is to switch the fire control calculus from the ground to space. Because these systems can maneuver around our sea and terrestrial radars, fire control coordinates have to come from space. There’s no other way to guide an interceptor up for a kill, which is what L3Harris is doing with our HBTSS. We’re providing fire control coordinates from space, incoming sea, and land-based interceptors. 

VIA SATELLITE: What are your thoughts on President Trump’s executive order for the Pentagon to design and build an Iron Dome for the United States? 

Zoiss: We can go back to 2021 when we saw that hypersonic missiles could evade our current ballistic defense system, which makes the homeland vulnerable to a missile raid. It accelerates the development of a system that provides full protection from incoming missile raids that are maneuverable. Fire control coordinates coming from space to guide these interceptors is the only way to do it. 

It is an acknowledgment of the challenge that the nation faces with this class, as countries continue to build more, and the gap that we currently have in our defense systems, and the acceleration to fill those gaps to make sure that we’re protected against this new class of threat. 

So it’s not surprising. We saw it coming, which is why we’ve invested in capitalization to make sure that we can scale. We think we’re in a good position to answer that call.

VIA SATELLITE: What is your take on the Iron Dome project’s effect on the American government’s defense, science, and technology leaders’ shifts to deliver?

Zoiss: In order to go fast, you need to buy what we already have. Our acquisition process has generally been a long cycle. There are ways to go much quicker. Those could be modifications of current contracts. The U.S. has a unique construct called the Other Transaction Authority (OTA), which allows the government to move very quickly. Many of these systems are being procured under OTA-type contracts. We need to continue to do things differently to field these capabilities, it’s mandatory. The traditional Department of Defense 5000 [acquisition] process will never get us there into the timelines that are relevant for the fight that we have in front of us.

VIA SATELLITE: What are your takes on the evolution of the relationship between the commercial satellite industry and the government?

Zoiss: I think the relationship is needed. It’s a healthy relationship. L3Harris, for example, we make the payloads, but we don’t make our own satellites. The satellite provides power, station-keeping, and telemetry communications back down to the ground. It provides life support for the payload. We’ve partnered with several different satellite commercial bus providers. We buy their buses, team them up with our payload, we have the mission knowledge, and then we resell that as an integrated solution back to our customers. We’ve partnered with all of the big names you can think of that have satellite buses. 

It’s been a good marriage because they have a hot production line for satellite buses, whether they be for communications or other means, and we have the payload expertise. So when we combine those two pieces, we can move much faster, which is key to accelerating capability for warfighters.

VIA SATELLITE: What milestones are planned for L3Harris in the upcoming year?

Zoiss: We’ll likely be launching the next-generation GPS satellite, which is NTS-3 [Navigation Technology Satellite-3]. We’ve delivered that satellite to the Air Force already. L3Harris also provides the mission data units for all of the GPS systems, and we provided the U.S. Air Force with a full satellite, which includes the next-generation GPS that will launch this year as well. There are a lot of big milestones for us in space this year. We look forward to SDA Tranche 3, we look forward to responding to Iron Dome, and to continuing the production that we already have underway. It will be another exciting year for us in space.

This Q&A has been edited and adapted from a Via Satellite webinar sponsored by L3Harris. Watch the rest of the conversation here.