• Forum
• SITREP
• Military
• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security

• Space

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Public Eye

Enhanced Polar System (EPS)

As an EPS follow-on, EPS-R will include two eXtended Data Rate (XDR) payloads that will provide protected satellite communications coverage in the North Polar Region until the Protected Tactical SATCOM and Evolved Strategic SATCOM polar variants are available. The Enhanced Polar System - Recapitalization (EPS-R) is a continuation of EPS and will prevent a coverage gap in protected polar satellite communications, until the early/mid 2030s, for warfighters in the North Polar Region, in benign and contested environments; will fly in a Three Apogee orbit; and the EPS-R payloads will be hosted on two Space Norwayprocured space vehicles, which is the first international collaboration of its kind. The approved APB includes delivery of the EPS-R payloads and tactical ground system but does not include the strategic capability.

EPS-R CAPS facilitates military satellite communications in the Earth’s North Polar Region by providing continuous coverage for secure, jam-resistant, strategic and tactical communications. CAPS is the ground segment providing command and control, and mission planning for all four of the EPS/EPS-R payloads with a single software baseline. In addition to the ground segment, EPS-R will also include two eXtended Data Rate (XDR) payloads developed by Northrop Grumman which will serve to provide coverage in the region until the Protected Tactical SATCOM and Evolved Strategic SATCOM polar variants become operational in the 2030s.

The Enhanced Polar System Recapitalization (EPS-R) program will provide continuous, protected, Low Probability of Intercept/Low Probability of Detectioncommunications to tactical and strategic warfighters in the North Polar Region in benign and contested environments. EPS-R will develop and acquire 1) two ExtremelyHigh Frequency (EHF) payloads, using Advanced EHF's eXtended Data Rate (XDR) waveform, on hosted spacecraft, 2) upgrades/modifications to the existingEnhanced Polar System (EPS) Control and Planning Segment (CAPS) to provide command and control and XDR mission planning capability, and 3) upgrades/modifications to the existing EPS gateway to provide connectivity between polar and midlatitude users through the Global Information Grid.

The EPS-R program is timed to prevent a gap in Arctic Military Satellite Communications (MILSATCOM) coverage after EPS end of life. To ensure polar MILSATCOMcontinuity beyond FY 2025, the DoD has begun funding activities to bridge the gap between the current EPS program and future protected systems being planned forthe late 2020s. The EPS-R program has examined performance, mission needs, schedules, and costs to avoid a mission gap. EPS-R will reuse EPS Gateway and ground control elements to the greatest extent feasible.

To meet the warfighter requirements for protected tactical and strategic polar MILSATCOM, RDT&E funding is required to continue program office and other relatedsupport activities that may include, but are not limited to studies, technical analysis, architectural development, acquisition strategy development, system requirementsand system trades analysis, risk reduction activities, technology maturation, system engineering, integration and test of all polar MILSATCOM segments and hosted payloads.

Space acquisition must respond with speed and agility to emerging adversary threats. Space & Missile Systems Center (SMC) is transforming the organization andimplementation of space acquisition to an enterprise approach, maximizing innovation and resiliency, leveraging international, commercial, and mission partnerships,and managing program/project priorities according to an integrated unclassified/classified enterprise space architecture. Expanding the appropriate acquisitionauthorities and contract mechanisms to deliver capability sooner, SMC will strategically execute experimentation, prototyping, risk reduction, and other efforts to developnew or repurpose capabilities.

The acquisition strategy updates the EPS Ground Segment to accommodate the EPS functional equivalent payloadsand extend operations and sustainment beyond 2028. The U.S. Government will retain the system integrator role, as it was for EPS program of record.

In early 2018, the Air Force’s Enhanced Polar System Recapitalization (EPS-R) was intended to maintain satellite coverage of polar regions, a critical function for certain U.S. Navy operations. By partnering with an allied country to launch multiple payloads, EPS-R had the opportunity to save approximately $900 million. The international partner, however, had a preexisting launch schedule that created an inflexible time constraint. Because of the urgency of the requirement, it had to be funded via a new start budget line item for which appropriations did not already exist.

This funding approach required submission of a congressional PA request to the four congressional defense committees. According to the acquisition authority, these requests take an average of 182 days to process.6 This would extend past the international partner’s launch deadline. At the time the Air Force began its request for EPS-R, Congress was still in the process of negotiating regular appropriations bills, working through additional CRs, and attempting unsuccessfully to avoid a government shutdown. Under some intelligence-related funding authorities, the EPS-R new start would have been automatically approved by default after 30 days. Due to the slowness of the approval process during a succession of CRs, however, the Air Force faced uncertainties in the delivery of critical capabilities to the warfighter and $900 million in taxpayer savings.

Ultimately, program officials were able to partner with the international agency and obligate money on the required contract modification at the last minute, having obtained approval from all four congressional defense committees. Had the program not been sufficiently high-cost and high-profile, DoD likely would have been unable to obtain these approvals from all congressional stakeholders on such short notice. One senior program official stated, “we narrowly escaped disaster” and the acquisition system should not continue to rely on these types of “diving saves.”

EPS-R added two payloads to the EPS program. The Air Force awarded a sole-source contract to Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems for two EPS-R payloads on February 6, 2018 and definitized the contract on August 10, 2018. Northrop Grumman was awarded an $87 million contract in May 2019. The EPS-R program office awarded the EPS-R CAPS contract less than 40 days after receiving a proposal. Additionally, EPS-R CAPS has implemented an agile software development approach, which has significantly decreased software build time while increasing software quality and simultaneously increasing collaboration, transparency, and integration across the program.

The Space Force is collaborating with Norway to host the two EPS-R payloads on Space Norway-procured space vehicles. The Arctic Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), approved May 28, 2019, establishes the framework for this collaboration. In July 2019, Space Norway signed a contract with Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems to be the space vehicle developer and with Space Exploration Technologies Corporation for a commercial dual-launch service. The Air Force coordinated and supported the inaugural Arctic MOA Steering Committee meeting between the United States and Norway on September 10, 2019. A dual-launch of both EPS-R hosted payloads is scheduled for first quarter FY 2023.

These efforts enabled the program office to leverage the hosted payload opportunity with Norway and placed it on track to deliver capabilities three years ahead of schedule with potential savings of up to $900 million. SMC’s Production Corps EPS-R program demonstrates the Secretary of Defense’s second line of effort to strengthen alliances and partnerships while consistently demonstrating EPIC Speed and innovation.

“The EPS-R program’s unprecedented approach provides an advantage to warfighters in the increasingly contested Arctic region. EPS-R leverages the best practices of our industry partners, in concert with commercial space and launch vehicle providers while collaborating with our Norwegian partners. The EPS-R CAPS system will command the EPS/EPS-R constellation allowing US Space Force space operators to provide continuous communication services to Arctic users,” said Maj. Craig Zinck, EPS-R Ground program manager.

The Enhanced Polar System Recapitalization (EPS-R) Payload program reached a major program milestone completing a successful Delta Critical Design Review (CDR), 09 October 2019. Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems (NGAS) is the EPS-R Payload developer via an approximately $410 million contract awarded in February 2018 that runs through December 2023.

The CDR was the culmination of more than two months of review by the government and contractor team assessing the maturity of the payload design, which allows the program to transition to the manufacturing phase. It focused on changes from the original EPS design to accommodate a new host space vehicle and was successfully completed with no significant issues or concerns.

Partnerships, innovation and speed are key tenets of the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) 2.0 vision to accelerate fielding new capabilities to the warfighter. SMC’s Production Corps EPS program is strengthening international partnerships by collaborating with the Norwegian Ministry of Defence and Space Norway to integrate the EPS-R payloads onto two separate Space Norway-procured satellites (developed by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems) scheduled to launch in December 2022 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 commercial launch. Space Norway is procuring the Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission in order to deliver broadband coverage to civilian and military users in the Arctic.

The EPS program office used innovative and rapid solutions to award the EPS-R Payload contract to NGAS in less than six months using a sole-source undefinitized contract. Additionally, the team awarded the EPS-R Control and Planning Segment ground contract less than 40 days after receiving a proposal from Northrop Grumman Mission Systems. These efforts enabled the program to leverage the hosting opportunity with Space Norway and placed it on track to deliver its capabilities three years ahead of schedule with the potential savings of up to $900 million.

“The EPS-R program’s unprecedented approach leverages best practices of our commercial space vehicle and commercial launch vehicle providers while collaborating with our Norwegian partners, and will prevent a protected communication coverage gap for warfighters in the Arctic region until future systems are available,” said Maj. John Gomez, EPS-R Payload program manager.

Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile Systems Center, located at Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo, Californ ia, is the U.S. Air Force’s Center of Excellence for acquiring and developing military space systems. Its portfolio includes the Global Positioning System, military satellite communications, defense meteorological satellites, space launch, range systems, satellite control networks, space-based infrared systems and space situational awareness capabilities.

The Space and Missile Systems Center’s Enhanced Polar System Recapitalization (EPS-R) program reached a major program milestone completing a successful delta Critical Design Review (dCDR) of the EPS-R Control and Planning Segment (CAPS). The review was held 24-25 June 2020.

The dCDR was the culmination of more than three months of critical baseline review by the government and contractor teams assessing and evaluating the maturity of the CAPS design. This assessment included areas of risk, software and hardware requirement traceability, testing, performance, cost and schedule. The dCDR was completed successfully with no significant issues or liens. The program will now move into the integration and test phase of the acquisition development cycle before eventually providing command and control for all four of the EPS/EPS-R payloads.

“The successful completion of this milestone demonstrates our team’s commitment to agile processes,” said Rob Fleming, vice president, strategic force programs, Northrop Grumman. “Extensive collaboration between the Northrop Grumman and customer teams was a large part of the design review success. The final design review content was shaped in cross functional working group meetings in the preceding weeks leading up to and resulting in a high quality dCDR event that met 100 percent of the exit criteria within 13 months of the contract’s authority to proceed.” With the completion of dCDR the program is now ready to move to the development, integration and test phase.