Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution Mission Data Processing Application Framework

The next generation of satellite data management capabilities must be scalable, modular and adaptive to an evolving threat landscape.

Each day, ground stations receive vast amounts of data from satellites in orbit. Using complex algorithms, they process all of the bits and bytes received and turn them into useable information for the end users who consume this data. As the volume of data grows and new threats emerge, ground stations need to evolve and adapt.

The Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution Mission Data Processing Application Framework — FORGE MDPAF for short — is a ground system framework that collects and processes data from satellites. FORGE MDPAF generates warnings, alerts and other information for combatants and eventually, civilian first responders and researchers.

The ground station framework processes Overhead Persistent Infrared or OPIR satellite data from both the U.S. Space Force’s evolving Space Based Infrared System constellation and the future Next Gen OPIR constellation. It is also capable of processing data from other civil and environmental sensors.

The mission

The U.S. Space Force tasked Raytheon with building a framework that improves mission operations that could be operational and available to users as quickly as possible.

Raytheon accepted this challenge and set out to create a simple and elegant solution providing a foundation on which best of breed technology provides a streamlined end-user experience.

This new framework provides common services for the enterprise ground and communications systems that the U.S. Space Force requires for this critical national security mission.

A new approach

Building a robust framework of applications that would evolve for the future requires a new way of approaching solutions. Leveraging the best of commercial innovation and deep mission knowledge, FORGE MDPAF is modular, flexible, adaptable and resilient to cyber-attacks.