Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR)

Mission — Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) source

The Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) program is a crucial component of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) mission, playing a significant role in the development and deployment of a layered Missile Defense System. This system is designed to defend the homeland from missile attacks of all ranges, in all phases of flight. The LRDR's contribution provides persistent long-range midcourse discrimination, precision tracking and hit assessment, thereby enhancing the Missile Defense System Homeland Defense Capability. Additionally, the LRDR program supports the United States Space Force's (USSF) Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and Space Object Identification (SOI) mission area, further underlining its importance. The LRDR Program Element includes the requirements to design, develop, integrate, deliver, field, and sustain the LRDR. The LRDR operates in the S-band frequency with a scalable and open systems architecture to mitigate evolving threats and integrates into the Missile Defense System through the Command and Control, Battle Management, and Communications system. This Program Element includes Missile Defense System threat discrimination improvements to enhance effectiveness against the evolving threat environment. The result will be a Missile Defense System architecture more capable of discriminating against and interpreting re-entry vehicles with a higher degree of confidence to improve the warfighter engagement doctrine, and conserve ground-based interceptor inventory. The LRDR comprises an equipment shelter, two radar array faces, a mission control facility for radar operations, and supporting facilities and infrastructure. The Secretary of the Air Force approved Clear Space Force Station, formerly known as Clear Air Force Station, AK, as the LRDR site. The USSF Space Operations Command is the designated Lead Major Command. The initial fielding of LRDR was completed on December 6, 2021. MDA pursued an incremental fielding approach in cooperation with the United States Northern Command, the United States Space Command, and the USSF. The early use fielding of the LRDR SDA capability occurred on March 27, 2024. LRDR was added to the Missile Defense System Operational Capability List (OCL) for SDA on December 20, 2024. LRDR homeland defense is planned to be incorporated into the OCL in 3Q FY 2025. The LRDR Program Element also supports the fielding of the LRDR capabilities described below: - The LRDR capability that will be added to the Missile Defense System in 2026 includes software upgrades to LRDR to improve bias monitoring and reporting, increased discrimination capability that is expanded to a broader spectrum of threats and Resident Space Object scenes, increased support to the SDA/SOI mission with additional reporting, expanded threat loading and threat type including addition of hypersonic threat requirements, cybersecurity upgrades, reliability upgrades, cost reduction initiatives to reduce life cycle operating costs, and characterization testing and improvements to Electronic Protection capability. - Further LRDR capability additions include software upgrades to LRDR to improve its capabilities against advanced threats.

Mission — Program Wide Support source

PWS contains non-headquarters management costs in support of Missile Defense Agency (MDA) functions and activities across the entire Missile Defense System. These functions include Government Civilians and Contract Support Services. This effort provides integrity and oversight of the Missile Defense System, as well as supports MDA in the development and evaluation of technologies that will respond to the changing threat. Additionally, PWS includes personnel to support global deployments performing deployment site preparation and activation, and provides facility capabilities for MDA Executing Agent locations worldwide. Other MDA wide costs include: physical and technical security; civilian drug testing; audit readiness; the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) program; legal services and settlements; travel and agency training; office, equipment, vehicle, and warehouse leases; utilities and base operations across multiple geographic locations; commercial and ancillary facility services; management of all facility aspects regardless of lifecycle stage; supplies and maintenance; compliance with statutory environmental requirements; data and unified communications support; materiel and readiness and central property management of equipment; Facilities Sustainment, Restoration and Modernization (FSRM) program (formerly Real Property Maintenance) to keep the Department's inventory of facilities in good working order; and similar operating expenses. PWS is allocated on a pro-rata basis across most Agency PEs, therefore, fluctuates per PE by FY based on the total Agency budget in that FY.

Mission — Long Range Discrim Radar (LRDR) source

The LRDR program is a crucial component of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) mission, playing a significant role in the development and deployment of a layered Missile Defense System. This system is designed to defend the homeland from missile attacks of all ranges, in all phases of flight. The LRDR's contribution provides persistent long-range midcourse discrimination, precision tracking and hit assessment, thereby enhancing the Missile Defense System Homeland Defense Capability. Additionally, the LRDR program supports the United States Space Force's (USSF) Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and Space Object Identification (SOI) mission areas, further underlining its importance. The LRDR Program Element includes the requirements to design, develop, integrate, deliver, field, and sustain the LRDR. The LRDR operates in the S-band frequency with a scalable and open systems architecture to mitigate evolving threats and integrates into the Missile Defense System through the Command and Control, Battle Management, and Communications (C2BMC) system. The LRDR will incorporate discrimination improvements to enhance its effectiveness against advancing threats by discriminating and identifying re-entry vehicles with a higher degree of confidence to improve system performance and conserve ground-based interceptor inventory. The LRDR is comprised of an equipment shelter, two radar array faces, a mission control facility for radar operations, and supporting facilities and infrastructure. The Secretary of the Air Force approved Clear Space Force Station (CSFS), formerly known as Clear Air Force Station, AK as the LRDR site. The USSF Space Operations Command is the designated Lead Major Command. LRDR completed initial fielding on December 6, 2021. MDA pursued an incremental fielding approach in cooperation with the Northern Command, the Space Command, and the USSF. Early use fielding of the LRDR SDA capability occurred on March 27, 2024. LRDR was added to the Missile Defense System Operational Capability List (OCL) for SDA on December 20, 2024. LRDR Homeland Defense capability is planned to be added to the OCL in 3Q FY 2025. Operational Acceptance (OA) by the USSF is scheduled for 4Q FY 2025 following the completion of the LRDR Homeland Defense trial period and the operational Flight Test Other (FTX)-26a. The LRDR Program Element supports the fielding of the LRDR capabilities described below: - The LRDR capability that is added to the Missile Defense System OCL in 4Q FY 2025 includes increased Missile Defense System raid handling capability, conventional and advanced discrimination capabilities, implementation of mitigation techniques in denied environments, Missile Defense System integration and remote ops via C2BMC, including cyber protection/interoperability, autonomous and cued acquisition capabilities, initial sensor bias reporting, inherent SDA capability, and Electronic Protection (EP) capabilities. - The LRDR capability that will be added to with the Missile Defense System in 2026 includes software upgrades to LRDR to improve bias monitoring and reporting, increased discrimination capability applicable to a broader spectrum of threats and Resident Space Object scenes, increased support to the SDA/SOI mission with additional reporting, expanded threat loading and threat type including addition of hypersonic threat requirements, cybersecurity upgrades, reliability upgrades, cost reduction initiatives to reduce life cycle operating costs, and characterization testing and improvements to EP capability. - Future LRDR capability enhancements include additional software upgrades to improve capabilities against advanced threats.

Accomplishments & Planned Programs (2)