US Navy, Space Force award key RGS, FORGE contracts

A rendering of the Relay Ground Station – Asia antennas facility to be deployed in Guam. (Northrop Grumman)

US Navy (USN) and US Space Force (USSF) officials have awarded several key, multi-year procurement deals in support of the joint Relay Ground Station (RGS) programme, which is a critical component of the Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution (FORGE) initiative, service officials announced in May.

Programme officials from the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) and USSF's Space Systems Command (SSC) reached development deals for RGS General Telecommunications Equipment/Communications (RGS GTE/Comms) systems with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman Corporation, and Peraton, according to a May SSC statement.

The total USD244 million deal will cover a five-year window for “design, procurement, development, integration, and testing of advanced ... hardware and software”, for RGS GTE/Comms systems, programme officials said in the statement. “This effort supports the modernization of the US missile warning architecture, ensuring faster, more resilient data flow to enhance early warning and joint force readiness,” the officials noted.

The RGS GTE/Comms development deal comes two years after a Northrop Grumman-built variant of the RGS – Asia (RGS-A) antenna secured preliminary design review (PDR) certification from the navy in June 2023.

USN programme officials plan to integrate the RGS-A into ground station elements supporting the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) network at geostationary Earth orbit (GEO). The RGS-A integration is also expected to align with USSF's ongoing efforts to stand up the SBIRS network replacement, dubbed the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-Gen OPIR) system.