Shifting market sands: LeoLabs moves to sell new mobile space radar directly to allies

LeoLab's mobile Scout-S radar can search for unknown objects, detect newly launched satellites and keep tabs on maneuvering sats between about 180 kilometers and 1,000 kilometers (112-621 miles) in altitude, according to company officials. (Photo courtesy of LeoLabs)

MAUI — In large part as a response to increased demand by US allies for “sovereign” military space capabilities , space tracking firm LeoLabs is shifting its services-focused marketing strategy to offer its newest radar — the highly mobile Scout-S — directly to governments, according to senior company officials.

“So, a key thing that’s changed for us is where historically we’ve always focused on operating the assets and [providing] the products, due to our hybrid business model, we’ll make Scout available both as a system — where we will operate it with customers on their behalf, but also provide provide them priority access to it [and] they can essentially take advantage of the radar service — but then we also are entertaining government-owned options,” LeoLabs CEO Tony Frazier told Breaking Defense on Monday.

Speaking on the margins of the annual Advanced Maui Optical Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) conference here, he said that the company now is positioned to offer access to Scout’s capabilities as a commercial service, as a contractor-owned and operated system funded by a government, or as a government-owned and operated system.

And that strategy already is paying off, Frazier and other LeoLabs officials said, with the firm in talks with over a dozen allied countries ― at least one of which has expressed interest in buying multiple units. The officials would not, however, reveal the price per unit of the radar.

Scout-S, which fits in a standard shipping container, debuted in late June during US Indo-Pacific Command’s multinational Valiant Shield exercise. The system’s multiple S-band antennas can detect, and more importantly constantly track over time, multiple space objects operating between very low Earth orbit (VLEO) at some 180 kilometers (112 miles) above the Earth up to about 1,000 kilometers, Frazier said.

(Not incidentally, many of China’s growing fleet of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) satellites now operate at some 900-1,000 kilometers in altitude.)

Frazier said that LeoLabs intends to produce Scout-S in the “single digits” next year, with a goal of scaling up to “dozens” per year.

Meanwhile, the firm will also be integrating multiple Scout-S radars deployed to “fill the gaps” in its network of 12 larger radar sites around the globe in order to improve the space situational awareness services currently provided to customers, including the US Space Force, Dan Ceperley, LeoLabs chief operating officer and co-founder, told Breaking Defense.

“We’ve got the most commercial radars of any company in the world, but it still leaves a lot of the world uncovered,” he said. “[D]epending on the satellite orbit, it can go hours before it’s observed. We’ve got to cut that down.”

The ability to rapidly detect satellites and then keep them in sight is ever-more important as more and more satellites become highly maneuverable, and routinely undertake rendezvous and proximity operations for various missions from on-orbit repairs to targeting adversary birds, Ceperley added.

“We started talking over a year ago about the need to move from periodic observations to persistent custody, and that’s really what this is all about,” Frazier added.

据公司官员称，LeoLab 的移动式 Scout-S 雷达可以搜索未知物体、探测新发射的卫星，并跟踪高度在 180 公里至 1000 公里（112 英里至 621 英里）之间的机动卫星。（图片由 LeoLab 提供）

毛伊岛——据公司高级官员称，太空追踪公司 LeoLabs 正在改变其以服务为中心的营销策略，转而直接向各国政府提供其最新雷达——高度机动的 Scout-S，这在很大程度上是为了响应美国盟友对“主权”军事太空能力日益增长的需求。

“因此，对我们来说，一个关键的变化是，过去我们一直专注于运营资产和提供产品，但由于我们采用了混合商业模式，我们将把 Scout 作为一套系统提供——我们将代表客户运营该系统，并为他们提供优先访问权限，他们基本上可以利用雷达服务——同时，我们也在考虑政府拥有的选项，”LeoLabs 首席执行官 Tony Frazier 周一告诉 Breaking Defense。

在一年一度的毛伊岛先进光学空间监视技术 (AMOS) 会议期间，他表示，该公司现在可以以商业服务、政府资助的承包商所有和运营的系统或政府所有和运营的系统的形式提供 Scout 的功能。

弗雷泽和其他LeoLabs公司官员表示，这一策略已经初见成效，该公司正在与十几个盟国进行洽谈——其中至少有一个国家表示有兴趣购买多台设备。不过，这些官员并未透露雷达的单价。

Scout-S系统体积小巧，可装入标准集装箱，于6月下旬在美国印太司令部举行的多国联合“勇敢之盾”演习中首次亮相。弗雷泽表示，该系统配备的多个S波段天线能够探测到多个运行于近地轨道（VLEO，距地球约180公里/112英里）至约1000公里高空的太空物体，更重要的是，它们还能持续跟踪这些物体。

（顺便一提，中国日益壮大的情报、监视和侦察（ISR）卫星群中，许多卫星目前的运行高度约为900-1000公里。）

Frazier表示，LeoLabs计划明年生产“个位数”的Scout-S，目标是逐步扩大到每年“几十个”。

与此同时，LeoLabs 首席运营官兼联合创始人丹·塞珀利告诉 Breaking Defense，该公司还将整合部署在世界各地 12 个大型雷达站网络中的多个 Scout-S 雷达，以“填补空白”，从而改善目前向包括美国太空部队在内的客户提供的空间态势感知服务。

他说：“我们拥有全球最多的商用雷达，但这仍然无法覆盖世界上的许多地区。根据卫星轨道的不同，目标可能需要几个小时才能被观测到。我们必须缩短这个时间。”

塞珀利补充说，随着越来越多的卫星变得高度机动，并经常进行交会和近距离操作以执行从在轨维修到攻击敌方卫星等各种任务，快速探测卫星并保持对其可见的能力变得越来越重要。

弗雷泽补充说：“一年多前，我们就开始讨论需要从定期观察转向持续监护，而这才是问题的关键所在。”