LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE, El Segundo, Calif. – On Monday, April 16, 2012, the U.S. Air Force terminated Defense Weather Satellite System contractual activities with Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in accordance with the FY2012 National Defense Authorization Act and FY12 Consolidated Appropriations Act.
Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems activities in support of the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project Satellite, however, are not subject to this termination notice.
The Defense Weather Satellite System was created out of the Executive Office of the President restructure of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System program into separate civil and military space programs in February of 2010.
Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems was the prime contractor for the military DWSS program and was responsible for developing the satellite, including the Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite provided by a subcontract with Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems.
The DWSS was intended to satisfy military requirements for timely, reliable and high-quality space-based remote sensing capability for global and regional environmental observations of atmospheric, terrestrial, oceanographic, solar-geophysical and other phenomena.
Today, the Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program constellation of satellites continues to provide high-quality and timely weather data to forecasters with two more satellites yet to be launched.
