TRW has won a $27.5 million US Air Force contract to implement the new Launch and Network Control Equipment (LANCE) system.
Under this three-year, cost-plus-award-fee contract, TRW and its teammates will design, develop, integrate, test, and deploy the new launch support and on-orbit telemetry processing system. Work will be performed in Redondo Beach, Calif., and Colorado Springs, Colo. LANCE will replace the existing 20-year-old mainframe network with a high-performance, workstation-based architecture using commercial off-the-shelf hardware and software.
“Using the advanced technologies now available in commercial products can significantly reduce the need for new development, allowing faster deployment at lower development cost,” said Rick Witton, TRW vice president and general manager for ground systems. “The LANCE program provides a unique opportunity to create a new paradigm for low-cost satellite ground systems development for the 21st century,” Witton added, “and to leverage this approach into dramatically reduced life-cycle costs.” Operational costs will be driven even lower through reductions in staffing due to automation and simplified operator interfaces.
TRW, as the prime contractor, will provide systems engineering, integration, and test. TRW will also be responsible for the design and development of the telemetry processing and analysis subsystem, orbit planning and analysis subsystem, remote ground facility, control subsystem, system infrastructure, and scheduling element. TRW also will lead site integration, training, maintenance, and sustainment engineering.
TRW’s teammates include: Boeing Integrated Defense Systems Division, Huntington Beach, Calif., responsible for mission planning and analysis subsystem, data archiving and playback subsystem, site integration, and sustainment support; and Harris Government Communications Systems Division, Melbourne, Fla., responsible for communications subsystem, ground resource management subsystem, site integration, and sustainment support.
Scheduled for operational use in October 2000, LANCE will be deployed at Falcon Air Force Base, Colo. Smaller versions may be deployed in the future — as additional options to the original contract — at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., and Cape Canaveral, Fla.
