50 Years of Space and Missiles

The Florida ANG's 125th Fighter Wing welcomed its first three F-35A jets on March. 4 as the Air Force aims to make the fifth-gen fighters as the “primary aircraft securing the southeastern U.S.”

As Lockheed Martin prepares to release the first F-35 Block 4 software updates this summer, the company and the Joint Program Office are already well into analyses that will decide what will comprise Block 5 and later upgrades, Lockheed’s F-35 program manager said. For now though, some of the new…

Maj. Gen. Larry Broadwell, deputy commander of the 16th Air Force, used an elaborate, sports-themed analogy for understanding information warfare at the AFA Warfare Symposium.

The Space Development Agency is delaying the start of launches for its next batch of satellites until late this summer, citing supply chain issues that caused late deliveries.

X-37B, the Space Force’s secretive spaceplane, returned to Earth early March 7 after more than a year in orbit, touching down at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., the service announced on social media, saying the spacecraft “successfully deorbited and landed” at 2:22 a.m. local time. 

The Space Rapid Capabilities Office quietly launched prototype payloads on a satellite two years ago to help operators know when the spacecraft is being tracked by China’s space surveillance network—a capability the office is now exploring for the rest of the Space Force. 

Space superiority emerged as a major theme of the 2025 AFA Warfare Symposium, and retired Space Force Col. Jennifer Reeves, now a senior fellow with the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, goes deeper on the significance of that theme and what it means moving forward for the Space Force.

Air & Space Forces Magazine sat down with retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Houston “Slider” Cantwell, now a senior fellow with the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, at the AFA Warfare Symposium to talk about the his research and panel discussion on Arctic defense and how the U.S. is combatting…

The Space Force is playing a key role in planning for “Golden Dome,” President Donald Trump’s initiative for comprehensive air and missile defense of the homeland, leaders said this week. But actually building and fielding the ambitious idea will require a major concerted effort across the Pentagon and intelligence community.