Explosion Destroys Building at Northrop Grumman Solid Rocket Motor Facility

April 16, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

An April 16 explosion destroyed a building at Northrop Grumman’s Innovation Systems plant in Promontory, Utah, where the company makes solid rocket motors for government and commercial customers.

There was no immediate report of casualties, which occurred at 7:35 am local time. Local officials said they are investigating the accident.

Northrop issued a brief statement late in the day, saying that “There was an incident in one building at our Promontory, Utah, facility this morning and we are working to determine the cause. Employees working in or near the building today are accounted for and there are no significant injuries reported.”

The Air Force referred inquiries to Northrop.

A Northrop spokesman declined to go beyond the statement and would not characterize the function of the building, and whether it was involved in production of solid rocket motors, or SRMs. Northrop’s Innovation Systems—formerly Orbital ATK—accounts for nearly 90 percent of the SRM capacity in the U.S., a capability that supports Air Force, NASA, and commercial space launch activities.

A local television station flew a helicopter over the building, showing no active fire but major wreckage.

Crucially for the Air Force, Northrop plans to use large solid rocket motors developed in-house for the new LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile. The Air Force plans to acquire 659 Sentinels, 400 of which will be deployed in silos and 259 for test, development, and capability demonstration purposes.

Northrop has used its Promontory facility, sometimes called “Rocket Ranch,” to conduct test fires of Sentinel’s rocket motors. Most recently, it conducted a full-scale static test fire of the stage-one solid rocket motor on March 6.

The facility is located north of the Great Salt Lake and northwest of the Ogden Air Logistics Complex, which has responsibility for Minuteman III rocket motor sustainment, among other systems.

What is now Northrop Grumman’s Innovation Systems was once the Thiokol company, which was acquired by Alliant Tech Systems in 2001. Alliant Tech Systems became ATK, and merged with Orbital Sciences Corp. in 2015. Three years later, Northrop acquired Orbital/ATK.

The nation’s large solid rocket motor capacity is so concentrated with Northrop that it had to agree to be a merchant provider of SRMs to Boeing in the competition to build the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, now known as the Sentinel system. Northrop was selected for the contract in 2020, after Boeing announced it would not bid, claiming it could not compete with Northrop’s in-house SRM advantage.

The next-largest producer of SRMs in the U.S. is Aerojet Rocketdyne, since 2023 a part of L3Harris.

AFSOC Command Chief Relieved, Investigation Ongoing

April 16, 2025 | By David Roza

The top enlisted Airman in Air Force Special Operations Command was relieved of the position April 14, but few details are available amid an ongoing investigation.

AFSOC commander Lt. Gen. Mike Conley relieved Chief Master Sgt. Anthony Green “due to a loss in confidence in his ability to fulfill his duties,” according to an April 15 press release.

“I want to assure you that this decision was only made after careful consideration of the circumstances,” Conley wrote in a message to AFSOC that day. The message was posted on the unofficial Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page and Lt. Col. Rebecca Heyse, director of public affairs for AFSOC, confirmed its authenticity.

“As Airmen, we are entrusted with incredible responsibility and held to the highest standards of conduct,” Conley added. “Upholding these standards is non-negotiable, and maintaining good order and discipline is fundamental to who we are.”

When asked which standards Green may have allegedly failed to uphold, Heyse said AFSOC could not comment at the time. She said an investigation is ongoing but could not comment as to whether the probe was being conducted by the Office of Special Investigations, an inspector general’s office, a commander-directed investigation, or some other entity.

The process to determine where Green will be assigned and who will replace him as AFSOC command chief is also ongoing.

“AFSOC is committed to the welfare of all our Airmen and maintaining good order and discipline which is necessary to preserve the trust placed in us to execute our critical global missions,” Heyse added.

Green joined the Air Force in 1995 and worked in C-130 maintenance for much of his career, according to his biography.

Green is the latest in a string of Airmen in leadership positions facing scrutiny. On April 15, a military judge sentenced Col. Christopher Meeker, former commander of the 88th Air Base Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, to 21 days confinement, a reprimand, and forfeiture of $14,000 after a court martial where Meeker pleaded guilty to charges of fraternization and willfully disobeying a superior officer. The government dismissed a charge of extramarital sexual conduct as part of the plea agreement. Meeker was relieved of command in December 2023.

A career Air Force civil engineer, Meeker said his actions demonstrated a lack of personal and professional discipline, according to an April 15 press release.

Last week, Col. Susannah Meyers was removed as commander of Pituffik Space Base in Greenland after Military.com revealed an email she wrote to base personnel distancing herself from Vice President J.D. Vance’s criticism of Denmark’s control of the island that the vice president made during a visit to the base. A Space Force spokesperson indicated that Meyers’ comments were political, leading to her dismissal.

Air Force Seeking ‘Emerging Technologies’ for E-7 Wedgetail—or Successors

April 16, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force is still a few years away from getting its hands on its first E-7 aircraft for airborne early warning and control, but the service is already seeking industry input on new systems to either enhance or replace the sensor capabilities of the Wedgetail—or possibly even acquire new capabilities for an entirely different targeting and battle management platform.

The plan is to start an engineering and manufacturing effort in fiscal 2027, around the same time as the first E-7 gets delivered.

In an April 15 solicitation, the Air Force explained that the first few E-7s are being acquired under a rapid prototyping program to cover “urgent capability gaps” caused by obsolescence and diminishing availability of the E-3 Sentry AWACS fleet. But in order to go fast, “the government intentionally did not include emerging new capabilities” in the program. Now it is interested “in identifying industry partners to provide cutting-edge capabilities and technologies.”

The Air Force’s Wedgetail Advanced Capabilities branch at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., issued the solicitation.

“Following the EMD phase, the Government is considering retrofitting USAF E-7A aircraft with EMD modifications, producing new E-7 aircraft, or a combination of retrofit and new aircraft,” the Air Force said.

Among the E-7 capabilities the Air Force is looking to either improve or replace are:

The E-7’s distinctive Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array radar

Advanced infrared sensors

Electronic Support Measures (ESM) replacement

Electronic Warfare Self-Protection (EWSP) replacement

Tactical Targeting Network Technology (TTNT)

Link 16 High Power Amplifier (HPA)

Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS) connectivity

Combat Identification (CID)

Next-generation Tactical Data Link (TDL)

Advanced missile data link capabilities

Other next-gen tech for battle management, command and control, targeting, communications, or position, navigation, and timing.

Notably, the Air Force solicitation states that it wants the technology around 2027 to start integrating onto “the baseline E-7 platform, or an equivalent AMTI/BMC2 platform.”

The Air Force plans to acquire 26 E-7s from Boeing by 2032, fewer than the 34 E-3s the service bought in the 1970s and ’80s. Officials have said they consider the Wedgetail a stopgap solution for the moving target indication mission, with plans to migrate the mission to space-based platforms in the 2030s. The long-term future of airborne command and control and targeting is not yet clear.

The E-7 is hosted on the 737-700 airframe, and Boeing will integrate the sensor and battle management systems the aircraft will carry. Northrop Grumman is the contractor for the large MESA radar on the top of the airframe, which vastly improves on the capabilities of the rotodome radar on the E-3.

Last August, the Air Force ordered the first two “operationally representative” E-7As under a contract worth $2.56 billion. Those aircraft are to be delivered in fiscal 2028.

There seems to be some urgency in the new solicitation, as the Air Force moved up the response date from May 7 to April 22 just a week after the solicitation was issued. That suggests that potential providers are already well aware of the Air Force’s requirements and are ready to respond.

The Air Force will require “delivery of at least two (2) integrated weapon systems (Advanced E-7 weapon system and associated ground equipment) within 7 years,” potentially starting in 2027, it said in the RFI. But it also noted that “baseline documentation for the E‑7A will not be available until [the third quarter of fiscal 2028], or potentially later. This documentation will not include detailed drawings or analyses of any commercial parts.”

Northrop Grumman is well along in testing its Electronically-Scanned Multifunction Reconfigurable Integrated Sensor (EMRIS), on which it completed its first “campaign” of test flights last year. The sensor, which can combine radar sensing functions with communications and electronic warfare, is intended to equip much smaller platforms than the E-7; Northrop sized it for use on autonomous Collaborative Combat Aircraft and fighters. This may explain the Air Force’s reference in the new solicitation to “other aircraft” that could fulfill the AMTI/BMC2 role.

B-1s Deploy to Misawa for First Ever Bomber Task Force Based in Japan

April 16, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

B-1Bs have landed at Misawa Air Base for the U.S. Air Force’s first-ever Bomber Task Force rotation based in Japan, Pacific Air Forces and Air Force Global Strike Command said.

The Lancers, from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, touched down at Misawa on April 15, having already flown a training mission with South Korean fighters earlier that day.

The Air Force introduced the Bomber Task Force concept in 2018 after it ended its continuous overseas bomber presence. Pentagon officials tout the BTF rotations, which can last several months, as a way to operate with more flexibility while being less predictable, and Air Force officials have steadily expanded the number of locations where they have based bombers.

In the Indo-Pacific, the Air Force had previously hosted Bomber Task Forces in Guam, Australia, and Diego Garcia. From there, bombers had flown missions to and over Indonesia, South Korea, and the Philippines.

Bombers have also landed in Japan before—a B-52 made an emergency landing at Yokota Air Base in April 2024, and B-1s conducting the first BTF of 2025 from Guam landed at Misawa in February for hot-pit refueling.

But this is the first time the B-1 will be based out of Misawa for a rotation. It’s also one of the first times in decades that the Air Force has positioned bombers in Japan for more than a few days. In the 1960s, B-52s were stationed at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa as part of the Vietnam War.

“BTF 25-2 showcases the U.S. commitment to deterring threats and maintaining regional stability,” said Lt. Col. Christopher Travelstead, director of operations for the deployed squadron. “These missions in the Indo-Pacific ensure our B-1 crews are highly trained and ready to respond anytime, anywhere, to defend U.S. interests and support our allies, securing a stable Indo-Pacific—where all nations operate freely under a rules-based order while promoting global peace and prosperity.”

The B-1s also add to the U.S. bomber presence in the Indo-Pacific; six B-2s are currently stationed on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer assigned to the 34th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., taxis after landing at Misawa Air Base, Japan, to conduct a hot pit refuel during Bomber Task Force 25-1, Feb. 20, 2025. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Brittany Kenney

In Pursuit of ‘Space Control,’ USSF Gets First Upgraded Jammer

April 16, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—As Space Force leaders grow more vocal and direct in calling for space weapons to control the domain, one official revealed last week that the Space Force has received a major upgrade to one of its few acknowledged space weapons.

The Space Force formally accepted its first “Meadowlands” system, said Col. Bryon McClain, program executive officer for combat power and space domain awareness, during last week’s Space Symposium. Meadowlands updates the Counter Communications System, a ground-based offensive platform designed to jam and disrupt adversaries’ satellite communications.

“It is now ours to really move forward into the formal … developmental testing and operational testing,” McClain said. “We’ve had good success with the contractor testing, and [now government testing] is moving forward.”

L3Harris won the contest to upgrade CCS in 2021, and the company announced in April 8 that its system passed a system verification review.

Both McClain and L3Harris have described Meadowlands as including hardware and software improvements to provide the Space Force with increased capability and flexibility.

In a statement, L3Harris vice president of surveillance systems Andy Builta said Meadowlands was “designed to be small, transportable, and cost-effective.” McClain noted that it will have the ability to be operated remotely, so “we can reduce the number of people that are physically sitting by the antenna, turning knobs and pushing buttons. The farther we can separate that, that gives us a lot of flexibility for the warfighter.”

Both officials also noted that this Meadowlands upgrade will allow future updates to CCS to be deployed more quickly. McClain called it a “fundamental upgrade of computer systems;” L3Harris said the open architecture software system will make it “easier to make software updates” in the future.

Meadowlands is just a small part of McClain’s weapons portfolio, most of which is classified. Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman’s increasing emphasis on space superiority points to future investments in space and counter-space weapons.

U.S. Space Command boss Gen. Stephen N. Whiting echoed that call at the symposium. “It’s time that we can clearly say that we need space fires and we need weapon systems,” Whiting said. “We need orbital interceptors. And what do we call these? We call these weapons, and we need them to deter a space conflict and to be successful if we end up in such a fight.”

McClain stands to see growth in his budget areas as the Space Force forges that future. “I would not be surprised if there’s continued growth there,” he said. Talking about it, however, may take longer still. “The challenge is Gen. Saltzman is able to talk very broadly about the concepts,” McClain explained. “Where it comes down to me, is doing the specifics. And that’s where the wall [goes up on] what I can and can’t say.”

In an on-stage interview, Space Forces-Space commander Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Schiess hinted that Saltzman and Whiting’s calls for space weapons is already translating into market research and early acquisition work.

“To get after protecting the joint force from space enabled attack, I need the capability to deny, disrupt, and degrade those red kill chains,” Schiess said. “I need that from our commercial partners, and I’ve talked to many of you this week, and we need to continue to build up to that.”

Air Force Piloting Hydrogen Energy Tech for Agile Combat Logistics

April 15, 2025 | By Shaun Waterman

Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii is testing novel energy technology to provide electrical power and hydrogen fuel in the kind of isolated and austere outposts the Air Force will need in the Pacific theater for its new Agile Combat Employment way of warfare.

The technology, developed by a majority veteran-founded startup based in Houston, employs wind and solar power to use electrolysis to make hydrogen from water in the atmosphere. The compressed hydrogen can then be converted into electric power via a hydrogen fuel cell, or used to fuel drones powered by the same kind of high-tech fuel cell. Any of the water extracted that remains can be used for drinking.

But what really caught the eye of the military, explained Rick Harlow, CEO of NovaSpark Energy Corp., was the form factor. He recently returned from Hawaii, where Novaspark demonstrated their Hydrogen at the Tactical Edge of Contested logistics (HyTEC) unit for INDOPACOM and at the 2025 Pacific Operational Science & Technology conference Field Experimentation event, called POST FX.

HyTEC is a portable unit, smaller than two porta-potties, which can be airdropped on a parachute, towed by a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), and takes less than 30 minutes to set up. “The Marines told us, ‘we need to be able to move up to five times a day, because we don’t want to be a sitting target,’” Harlow told Air & Space Forces Magazine. For the Air Force, being able to airdrop the units means rapid deployment to isolated environments—as envisaged by Agile Combat Employment.

Above all, by providing a source of power almost literally out of thin air, said Harlow, HyTEC can help eliminate dependance on a long logistics tail for fuel resupply in the vast, ocean-spanning, Pacific theatre.

The HyTEC hydrogen fuel generator was demonstrated in April 2025 at POST FX at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. Courtesy Novaspark Energy Corp.

When it comes to air transportation, space is always at a premium. And the biggest consumers of space are often fuel and water, Air Force officials say, both of which can be provided by the HyTEC unit, which generates about 4.5 pounds of compressed hydrogen every 24 hours.

“You don’t have to fly diesel [or other fuels] around where it could cost as much as $400 to $500 a gallon by the time it’s delivered,” Harlow said.

HyTEC is also equipped with a series of briefcase-sized hydrogen fuel cells that can output 4 kilowatts of electricity to power satellite terminals or other communications and IT equipment.

As an alternative to diesel or gasoline generators, these fuel cells have heat and noise signatures that are both much lower, said Novaspark Chief Innovation Officer Lanson Jones.

“The sound from a fuel cell is a slight hum. Less than 30 decibels. More quiet than a dishwasher, and there’s really no heat signature,” he said. More importantly, unlike a diesel generator, it can run 24/7 for long periods of time.

“I call it the Swiss Army knife,” Jones said of the HyTEC, “because not only can you create hydrogen to fuel drones, or make electricity, but you can also use the compression equipment to refill tires, and, if the hydrogen tank is full and you want to keep it, you can tap directly into the power from the wind turbine and from the solar panels without using that hydrogen. And you can do other really cool stuff, like make water for the troops.”

The hydrogen HyTEC produces can be used to fuel a new generation of drones like Lockheed Martin’s Stalker, and ground vehicles being developed by the U.S. Army, added Harlow.

“With hydrogen, you can not only go further than batteries, but you can actually go further than with diesel” or other fuels, said Harlow.

“So in practical terms with the drones, you’re looking at going two to three times as far and carrying two to three times the payload compared to batteries. There’s a huge strategic advantage,” he said.

The HyTEC system was first developed with funding from the Defense Innovation Unit, Harlow explained.

“We won a contract with the DIU, and they funded us to build the unit and to prove out that it works. So we were able to use non-dilutive funding without having to give away a bunch of the company in the process of getting investment.”

They then won an AFWERX Commercial Solutions Offering contract, which was recently extended, Harlow said, as well as an Other Transaction Authority contract from the Army Contracting Command in Picatinny, N.J.

“Any military agency or element can buy off that contract, and so can the different National Guards in the various states.”

The National Guard’s ability to buy off that contract is significant, Harlow said, because the company is looking to expand into the disaster relief sector, where the Guard is very active.

B-1 Bombers Jet to South Korea for Training, Flyover

April 15, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

B-1Bs from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, flew over South Korea alongside U.S. and Korean fighters on April 15, adding to the already robust USAF bomber presence in the Indo-Pacific.

The BONEs flew over the western part of the Korean peninsula, overflying Osan Air Base, according to a release from the 7th Air Force, escorted by U.S. Air Force F-16s and Republic of Korea Air Force F-35s and F-16s.

“The fighters and bombers engaged in offensive and defensive counter air training together, refining combined tactics, techniques, and procedures,” the 7th Air Force release stated.

The B-1s then departed Korean airspace.

The release did not specify where the B-1s came from, but released photos and public flight tracking data identified them as being from Dyess.

The flight was the third U.S. bomber mission with South Korea this calendar year, and the second since President Donald Trump took office. It came as North Korea celebrated the anniversary of state founder Kim Il Sung, great grandfather of North Korea’s Kim Jung Un, and it followed a CNN report showing satellite images revealing construction of a massive new North Korean warship.

North Korea often engages in heated rhetoric in the wake of U.S. bomber missions in the region, and has occasionally conducted missile tests in response. The U.S. and South Korea have sometimes responded to such provocations with additional patrols.

The two B-1s in eastern Asia flew as multiple B-2 Spirits are stationed at Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The B-2s, which have been at the remote island for several weeks, have reportedly been taking part in the U.S. air offensive against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Yet Diego Garcia is roughly equidistant from southeast Asia and the South China Sea and the Middle East, making it a valuable location for operations in both theaters.

Pentagon Looks to Ground Radars to ‘Fill Gaps’ in Space Domain Awareness

April 15, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—As the Space Force looks to expand its ability to track objects in orbit, a series of ground-based radars coming in the next few years could help fill gaps in coverage.

Better space domain awareness—essentially intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance on satellites—is one of the top priorities of USSF leadership, who want to be able to track more threats and have a deeper understanding of what they’re doing, especially as competitors like China maneuver their satellites more and more. To do so, the service can use its own spacecraft or sensors on the ground.

Col. Bryon McClain, program executive officer for space domain awareness (SDA) and combat power, told reporters at the Space Symposium that he is taking a “both/and” approach.

“The answer is always ‘I want more,’ and space-based fills in gaps that ground-based systems can’t always grab. Ground-based systems fill in gaps that space-based systems can’t grab. To me, it’s a mix,” he said.

Yet ground-based radars in particular seem to be how the Space Force is trying to boost coverage in the near term, especially over the Indo-Pacific region, while it plans other long-term upgrades.

Low-Earth Orbit

To keep an eye on the increasingly congested low-Earth orbit, the Space Force innovation arm SpaceWERX announced a $60 million Strategic Funding Increase for startup LeoLabs last month to build a new radar at a to-be-determined site in the Indo-Pacific.

At the Space Symposium, LeoLabs CEO Tony Frazier told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the radar will be an ultra-high frequency system from the company’s line of “next-generation radar technology.”

“It’s a direct radiating array, meaning that it emits a cone of energy that allows us to be able to detect new things in space,” Frazier said. “So new foreign launches, keeping track of highly maneuverable spacecraft … the intent is to be able to detect new foreign launches within minutes, and then be able to provide early warning, you know, to a variety of customers.”

LeoLabs has already built one such radar in Arizona thanks in part to a previous Small Business Innovation Research contract from AFWERX, the Air Force innovation arm. The firm built that radar in just five months and has been able to track thousands of satellites, Frazier said, providing a larger field of regard than previous radars.

The goal is to select a site for the new radar soon, in consultation with the Space Force, and start building fast so the system can be up and running by January 2027.

The $60 million for the effort is coming from multiple sources, including the Air Force Research Laboratory, private funding, and U.S. Space Command, which wants to “field better SDA capability more quickly,” USSPACECOM Commander Gen. Stephen N. Whiting said in a keynote address.

The new LeoLabs radar, called Seeker, “will improve DOD’s ability to minimize gaps in SDA coverage and provide early detection and tracking for space and missile launches in China,” he added.

LeoLabs also unveiled another new radar at the Space Symposium, a mobile S-band radar it calls Scout. The system can be transported by truck or cargo ship and even used at sea, Frazier said—making it ideal for tracking China in the Indo-Pacific.

LeoLabs’ new mobile “Scout” radar. Photo courtesy of LeoLabs

“Our intent is with dozens of these systems deployed, we would be able to provide full coverage, where today, because of some of the limitations of networks like the Space Surveillance Network, those systems are really powerful radars … but most of them are clustered in the Northern Hemisphere,” Frazier said. “There’s big gaps in in the Southern Hemisphere and equatorial regions, over open oceans, where having this distributed network you would be able to fill those gaps and give the adversary less opportunities to maneuver.”

While the Space Force and Space Command have not procured any Scout radars yet, Frazier said the company is seeing strong interest and working with the Pentagon.

“We’re going to build the first four to five systems this year, we’re already planning to do testing in INDOPACOM, so we have a commitment around that,” he said.

LeoLabs is one of several startups focused on space domain awareness getting attention from the Pentagon. Within the past few weeks, AFWERX funded the development of an AI-powered tool for identifying and tracking objects in low-Earth orbit, even as they maneuver and try to cloak themselves, from Slingshot Aerospace. The Defense Innovation Unit has also contracted with startup ExoAnalytic Solutions.

Geosynchronous Orbit

While LeoLabs is focused on tracking objects closer to Earth, the Space Force is also working on systems for SDA all the way out to geosynchronous orbit, some 22,000 miles up.

McClain told reporters that GBOSS (Ground-Based Operational Surveillance System), a planned upgrade for the existing Ground-Based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance radars, is currently being tested at a GEODSS facility in White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Budget documents indicate the service hopes to operationally accept the system this year, followed by testing and acceptance at the GEODSS facility in Maui, Hawaii, in 2026.

Meanwhile, the Space Force continues to work on its new Deep-Space Advanced Radar Capability. Construction on the first of three sites concluded in Australia in February, and a second site has already been picked in the United Kingdom. A third site is planned in the U.S.—McClain mentioned Texas as a possibility—but no final decisions have been made, a Space Systems Command spokesperson said.

“That’s going to get amazing capability … out to GEO,” McClain said.

The Australia site is still slated to go live in 2027.

At the same time, McClain’s team is also following a directive from acting acquisition czar Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy to review the program’s requirements and determine if they could be met using only commercial products.

A reflector being assembled in the Antenna Integration Structure (AIS) at Site 1 in Australia. DARC, a trilateral partnership between the U.S., the U.K. and Australia, will provide three radar sites and 360-degree coverage of the GEO belt. Photo Credit: Mike Kortum, Four Sea Group Inc.

“We are looking at all options to make sure that we don’t stay locked into something, even if it’s extremely expensive, because we signed a trilateral [memorandum of agreement],” McClain said. “DARC brings such a phenomenal capability. There is not a simple, out-of-the-box, commercial solution. But this is where I fall back on an ecosystem. Do we have the right mix of DARC systems in the right locations? Maybe there are areas where I can augment a little more commercial and adjust the cost curve. So perhaps we still end up with three DARCs. Perhaps we end up with two DARCs … but new commercial aspects in Australia, U.K., or in the United States that help broaden that scope. I don’t have a solid answer because the team is analyzing what Gen. Purdy asked us to analyze.”

Space-Based

With the new and updated radars set to come online in the next few years, the Space Force’s planned spending on ground-based space domain awareness is projected to be a healthy $1.7 billion from 2025 to 2029, according to budget documents.

Space-based SDA, by comparison, is a much smaller $784 million. Budget documents indicate much of that is going to support and expand the Silent Barker program the Space Force worked with the NRO to launch, as well as upgrades, research, and development.

Yet McClain said that new systems may be coming. In March 2024, his office released a request for information from industry on a new generation of satellites that can do space domain awareness, like the Space Force’s current Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program.

Since then, market research has been ongoing, McClain said. And while there may not yet be a program in budget documents, “I don’t think it’s very far off,” he suggested.

F-35 Cues Ground Artillery in ‘Minutes’ with New Data Gateway at Major NATO Exercise

April 15, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

Dutch F-35s, using a Lockheed Martin-developed communications gateway, shared classified data with a Dutch command-and-control system to achieve a kill on a ground target during the NATO exercise Ramstein Flag earlier this month, the company announced this week. It was the first time the system was operated outside the U.S.

Ramstein Flag, now in its second year, has quickly become one of NATO’s biggest air exercises. This edition featured 90 aircraft from 15 countries operating from 12 allied air bases, coordinated from The Netherlands’ Leeuwarden Air Base. Officials said they focused on counter-anti access/area denial missions, integrated air and missile defense, and Agile Combat Employment.

For the real-time, live-fly communications gateway demonstration, Royal Netherlands Air Force F-35s flew in an Anti-Access Area Denial environment and detected, identified, and passed targeting data on “multiple simulated ground effectors via Multifunction Advanced Datalink through a Skunk Works’ Open Systems Gateway (OSG) into Keystone,” a Dutch command and control system.

Skunk Works is Lockheed’s advanced development unit, based in Palmdale, Calif. The MADL is the secure datalink system that allows F-35s to communicate with each other while preserving their stealth.

Keystone fed the data to a ground-based rocket artillery platform, “which engaged a ground target and confirmed successful takedown, effectively closing the loop. This entire process was executed from start to finish in a matter of minutes,” the company said in a press release. The ground target was a grouping of Surface-to-Air Missile systems.

“This is a first, and a significant step forward in multi-domain integration, proving F-35 interoperability between several allied nations in real-time,” Lockheed said.

Through a spokesperson, the company said the gateway was “an evolution from Project Missouri,” a gateway experiment dating back to 2013 meant to connect the F-35 and F-22.

“We have continued to refine and build upon our experimentation over the last 12 years, and with the support of the Missile Defense Agency, were able to prove this capability alongside our F-35 partners last week,” the spokesperson said. “This is the same architecture and technology that was used by Lockheed Martin to integrate F-35 and F-22 in the past.”

The company further said that the gateway “can be leveraged with any platform/sensor/shooter” and is “aircraft agnostic, but we’re currently [focused on] the F-35.” It can also be leveraged with other countries’ C2 systems.

This latest demonstration also builds on work done by the U.S. and United Kingdom for Project Deimos this past December, when an F-35 flying from Lockheed’s facility in Fort Worth, Texas, shared live classified data through the gateway with a British command-and-control system—the first time an F-35 had shared such data with a non-American C2 system.

Ramstein Flag, which Lockheed described as a “collaboration” between U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Skunk Works, went a step further by operating the gateway in Europe for the first time. “We leveraged the USAFE-owned Deployable All-Domain Ground Gateway Rig which contains the gateway within the system,” the company said.

Use of the gateway helps F-35 users with “unlocking the vast amount of data” collected by an F-35, the company said, enabling allied air and missile defense systems to receive precise targeting information that then allowed them to “detect, track and defeat threats more effectively.”

The system helps strengthen collective defense by enhancing the situational awareness of joint forces, allowing them to “respond more quickly and decisively” to threats, Lockheed said.

“Our goal is to make interoperability a reality for our allied partners by maximizing the information available on the F-35,” the company said.

Ramstein Flag, which concluded April 11, is modeled after the U.S. Air Force’s Red Flag exercises that test Airmen to “train like they fight” in realistic combat scenarios. The NATO exercise also has a heavy emphasis on information sharing, interoperability, and support of special forces and naval units.

The exercise also bolstered F-35 interoperability through cross-servicing: having maintainers from different countries work on each others’ jets. Crew chiefs from the U.S. and the Netherlands launched two F-35s each from the others’ country.