16th SPCS Breaks Ground For New Weapons System
The 16th Space Control Squadron, a unit with the 21st Operations Group on Peterson AFB, will break ground for its newest facility designed to house an upgraded weapon system, the Rapid Attack, Identification, Detection and Reporting System Block-10. The ground-breaking ceremony is scheduled for Jan. 17th at 10:00 a.m.
RAIDRS consists of a central operating location and five suites of transportable antennas deployed around the world to detect, characterize, geolocate and report sources of radio frequency interference on U.S. military and commercial satellites in direct support of combatant commanders.
The 16th SPCS is Air Force Space Command’s first defensive counterspace unit, and already operates RAIDRS space control capabilities.
Airmen from the 16th SPCS, along with its reserve associate unit the 380 SPCS, have provided the majority of the required manpower since 2007 for Operation Silent Sentry, the original RAIDRS Deployable Ground Segment that has been continually deployed since 2005.
The new RAIDRS Block-10, the follow-on to RDGS-0, is expected to achieve initial operational capability in September and full operational capability in September 2013.
