AF to Decide Between Lockheed, Raytheon for $3B Space Fence Program

The Air Force is in the final stages of deciding whether Lockheed Martin or Raytheon will build a $3 billion radar system for detecting and tracking man-made space debris, the Boston Globe reports.

Bryan Bender writes Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, Mass. is working with MIT Lincoln Labs and Mitre Corp. and could select the Space Fence program winner by this summer.

Lockheed and Raytheon have submitted their designs for the system, which the Air Force wants to use to track an estimated half-million pieces of man-made debris that impacts weather forecasting, navigation and communication satellites.

C. Zachary Hofer, a defense electronics analyst at Forecast International, told the Globe the Space Fence will succeed a system that has been in service since 1961

Hanscom started the Space Fence program in 2005, Bender reports.