Northrop to Develop Small Satellites IHI Corporation for Japan

IHI Corporation and Northrop Grumman agreed at DSEI Japan to work toward developing small, highly maneuverable satellites and other solutions for missions such as Space Domain Awareness (SDA) for Japan.

Japan’s National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy of December 2022 called for strengthened SDA to ensure sustainable economic activity and national security. To help address this need, IHI and Northrop Grumman signed an MoU to jointly collaborate on opportunities to provide small, highly maneuverable satellites to enhance awareness in an increasingly contested Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) environment.

For over a decade, IHI has provided space situational awareness data services for the safe operation of satellites. In recent years, IHI has invested attention to the movement of satellites in GEO.