NEWTOWN, Conn. -- After years of disorder, the Air Force's weather satellite program finally appears to be making progress. Following the cancellation of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), the Air Force pursued development of a new weather satellite under the Defense Weather Satellite System (DWSS) program. However, that program faced funding problems and delays.
Even after the Air Force terminated the DWSS program and initiated a new program called the Weather System Follow-on (WSF), problems continued. Congress was not pleased that the Air Force did not adequately address needs for cloud coverage observation and area-specific weather imagery. Congress became so dissatisfied with the Air Force's management of the program, that it threatened to take away the weather observation from the Air Force and hand it to the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
The Air Force responded by initiating studies on how best to address all areas of weather observation. The service decided to create two variants of WSF satellites, one equipped with microwave sensors (WSF-M) and one equipped with electro-optical sensors (WSF-E) for cloud coverage observation.
With that decision, the program now appears to be on more solid footing. Ball Aerospace was awarded a system design and risk reduction contract in November 2017 to start work on WSF-M. Later in the month, a request for information (RFI) was issued for WSF-E.
With progress being made, Forecast International expects the first WSF-M satellite to launch in 2023, with a WSF-E launching two years later. Replacements will be launched about five years later for each satellite.
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