As Military SATCOM Use Grows, Rivals Vie to Cut SpaceX’s Market Share

As Military SATCOM Use Grows, Rivals Vie to Cut SpaceX’s Market Share

April 18, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—In the Space Force’s push to increase its consumption of commercial satellite capabilities, satellite communications stands out as the template. 

“If you look at the commercial satellite communications industry, we’ve been integrated for quite some time, providing our services alongside MILSATCOM,” said Todd Gossett, of SATCOM provider SES Space & Defense. “We’ve seen, over the past decade, a much more purposeful integration of these commercial capabilities into the military alongside purpose-built capabilities [into] what we now call hybrid space architecture.” 

The question now is how broadly the Space Force will look to leverage additional SATCOM providers.

Defense officials announced late last year they are expanding the Proliferated Low Earth Orbit (PLEO) Satellite-Based Services program from a maximum of $900 million to $13 billion, based on demand across DOD. But some worry that there is insufficient competition in the marketplace.  

“From a strategic perspective, industry can meet those needs,” said Col. A.J. Ashby, senior materiel leader for strategic SATCOM, at the Space Symposium last week. “It’s just, how robust is that industrial complex to deliver those capabilities? What we don’t want to do is find ourselves in a situation where you have a single commercial provider that can deliver that capability, because if you find yourself in vendor lock, it could increase costs and delay delivering that capability to the warfighter. So we want to make sure that we have a robust and viable industrial base to deliver on all military capabilities.” 

SES, Iridium Communications, Inmarsat, and Viasat are all well-established, decades-old providers. But as in the space launch business, a singular dominant player has also emerged in SATCOM. And it’s the same firm: SpaceX, with its massive Starlink constellation. Out of $660 million in task orders already assigned for the PLEO program, most went to SpaceX, a defense official said last fall. Among the program’s 20 approved vendors, no one is close to SpaceX right now. 

“It’s just that SpaceX [and] Starlink was obviously first to market,” the official said at the time. 

Other companies are racing to catch up. Amazon aims to launch thousands of its Project Kuiper satellites in LEO, but has not yet put one in space. Others, like Canada’s Telesat, have plans for a LEO constellation but are hoping to differentiate their offerings in other ways, president of government solutions Chuck Cynamon told Air & Space Forces Magazine. 

“We are geared towards enterprise, government, and defense,” said Cynamon, adding that because Telesat waited to pivot to its low-Earth orbit constellation, it has seen new Pentagon requirements and strategy released in the past year or so that it can “factor … into our offering.”

Telesat’s Lightspeed constellation in LEO, scheduled to reach space in 2026, will have advantages for the military over Starlink or even its militarized cousin, Starshield, Cynamon claimed. 

“One of the things that we think we’re offering that is a bit more unique … is the opportunity to offer a capacity pool, something that a government can own that would be sovereign,” Cynamon said. “So if the U.S. government owns a pool of capacity, whether it be bought by the volume or the throughput, it is theirs to own within the Lightspeed ecosystem…. They own the capacity, whether globally or regionally. They can sub-allocate it. So if you have various regions of the world that you want to concentrate your capacity,” the customer can do so.  

Assured access to commercial services in the event of a conflict or crisis is a crucial concern for the Space Force as it seeks to integrate its options into a more seamless whole. U.S. Space Command boss Gen. Stephen N. Whiting said at the symposium that the Space Force is looking to leverage automation to gain flexibility and advantage.

“We are transforming our SATCOM resiliency by moving away from labor-intensive methods using stovepiped systems to automated systems that can maneuver between orbits and between different frequency bands to outpace our adversaries,” said Whiting. “Making SATCOM missions more robust and responsive and resilient is vital to meet the needs of our joint force on tactically relevant timelines.” 

Charlotte Gerhart, deputy director of military communications and PNT, highlighted that same approach for the Space Force’s tactical SATCOM requirements. “Our ability to put capability wherever we need to, when we need to do it, that mobility aspect, is one of the key things that we look at,” she said. “ … Our ability to command and control without being, for lack of a better term, constrained by other users on the system.” 

The Space Force is working on a “hybrid” SATCOM terminal that can shift between multiple frequencies and connect with both military and commercial constellations. So is the Navy, presenting opportunities for scale but also challenges to coordinate between the services.  

Cynamon and others in industry are urging Pentagon decision-makers “not to lock yourself into one provider terminal today,” such as Starlink’s dedicated SpaceX terminal. Telesat, he said, intends for its Lightspeed constellation to be terminal-agnostic, giving military customers more flexibility. 

Yet SpaceX’s ubiquity and proven performance are winning warfighting customers. The Air Force has used Starlink for forces everywhere from Europe to the Indo-Pacific, and in 2023 the Space Force awarded SpaceX a $70 million contract for Starshield. Breaking that lock will be a lucrative business for others, but competing for market share will be hard given Starlink’s head start. 

AFA Inaugurates New Headquarters with Doolittle Raider Toast

AFA Inaugurates New Headquarters with Doolittle Raider Toast

April 17, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

The Air & Space Forces Association celebrated the grand opening of its new offices with a decades-old tradition recalling its founding president, Medal of Honor hero Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, and the stories of the Doolittle Raiders, who executed the first strike on Imperial Japan five months after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin headlined a star-studded crowd of current and former military and civilian leaders.

The Raider toast dates back to the early years after World War II, when Doolittle and the other survivors began to gather for reunions celebrating the legendary April 18, 1942, raid over Tokyo. Over the years, the survivors among the 80 Airmen who executed the raid would gather to raise a glass in honor of their comrades who had died in the previous 12 months: “To those who have gone.”  

The last “Doolittle Raider,” Lt. Col. Richard Cole, died a day after the 77th anniversary of the raid, on April 9, 2019.

AFA revived the toast in 2024, inviting other AFA Chapters and Air Force units to join in the celebration remotely. This year expanded the theme by tying it to the ceremonial opening of its new building in Pentagon City, steps away from the Pentagon in Arlington, Va. 

“It’s only fitting that the ribbon-cutting of today’s new headquarters should segue into a ceremony that honors the men who laid the groundwork for American airpower,” AFA President and CEO retired Lt. Gen. Burt Field said. “Because really that’s how AFA started, all the way back in 1946, before there was an independent Air Force. And then fast forward to when the Space Force was established, and we altered our name. … As long as there are Airmen and Guardians, there will be an AFA advocating for them, educating the public about them, and supporting them and their families.” 

Allvin was toastmaster for the occasion, which he said marked an opportunity to not only reflect on the past, but draw inspiration for the future. 

“We need to celebrate these times, not only to honor the memory of those courageous Airmen, but to reignite ourselves: to think about, ‘What does it take?’ … These were not hand-selected Airmen who were trained over time. These were 80 ordinary Airmen who did an extraordinary thing. And [so] think about, ‘What can be possible?’” 

Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, speaking before the ribbon-cutting, cited Doolittle’s legacy, which goes beyond the raid. 

“On the fourth of February, 1946, the Air Force Association was not founded as a veterans group, but rather as an advocate for airpower,” Saltzman said. “Thanks to the efforts of its first president, Jimmy Doolittle, the organization rapidly made its mark. It played a key role in driving U.S. government to establish the Department of the Air Force in 1947 and its campaigning helped ensure the Air Force’s status as a separate and coequal service with the Army and the Navy. It’s something I know a little bit about, and that’s not an easy task.” 

Scores of Air Force and Space Force leaders past and present, industry officials, AFA employees, and guests—along with hundreds following along online—toasted “to those who have gone,” and then celebrated the road ahead. 

“I’m pretty sure Jimmy Doolittle would be very, very proud of how this organization has evolved and continued to look forward,” Allvin said. 

AFA’s Grand Opening and 83rd Doolittle Raiders Memorial Toast on April 17, 2025. Photo by Jud McCrehin/Air & Space Forces Association
Maryland Guard A-10s Still Flying in ‘Combat Readiness’ Exercise

Maryland Guard A-10s Still Flying in ‘Combat Readiness’ Exercise

April 17, 2025 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

The Maryland Air National Guard may be starting to say goodbye to its A-10 “Warthogs,” but it is not slowing down in the meantime, as it recently wrapped up a 11-day “combat readiness” exercise along the East Coast to prepare some of its Airmen for a planned deployment to the Middle East.

The exercise, which ran from April 1-11, included operations from Badin, N.C.; Tampa, Fla.; Savannah, Ga.; and Fort Meade, Md., a 175th Wing spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. Six A-10s from the 104th Fighter Squadron took part, as the wing’s Airmen conducted close air support operations and assisted naval forces in controlling simulated surface threats.

“I’ve seen a lot of success in our responses, especially at the tactical level,” Capt. Casey Smith, 175th Wing chief of plans and exercises, said in a release. “We had very fast response times, showcasing the strength of our training and our ability to adapt quickly under pressure.”

Airmen also practiced setting up and sustaining forward bases while establishing security perimeters. The Airmen focused on responding to scenarios that mirrored deployment conditions, including ground and cyber attacks.  

Airmen assigned to the 175th Wing, Maryland Air National Guard, construct a small shelter system at the 145th Regional Training Site in Badin, North Carolina, April 4, 2025. U.S. Air National Guard photo by Senior Master Sgt. Christopher Schepers

“Some of our Wing staff are scheduled to be deployed in FY 2026,” the spokesperson said. “We’re partnering up with [the] Wisconsin Air National Guard to take on a mission for U.S. CENTCOM.”

U.S. Central Command oversees the military operations in the Middle East, and the Air Force has had a steady flow of deployments to the region following Israel’s war on Hamas began in October 2023.

That flow has increased as of late, as the Pentagon tries to counter Iranian-backed Houthi threats and to reopen shipping lanes in the Red Sea. The service has since deployed six B-2 stealth bombers to Diego Garcia and several A-10s from the Idaho Air National Guard in support of its campaign targeting the Houthis.

However, the Maryland ANG’s “tank-killer” aircraft won’t be part of the upcoming deployment; the spokesperson said that the 175th Wing will instead be deploying as part of a Expeditionary Air Base team, which focuses on consolidating leadership and support functions into cohesive teams to enable aircraft operations, instead of fulfilling those functions piecemeal.

Airmen assigned to the 175th Wing, Maryland Air National Guard, construct a small shelter system at the 145th Regional Training Site in Badin, North Carolina, April 4, 2025. U.S. Air National Guard photo by Senior Master Sgt. Christopher Schepers

Since 2023, the Air Force has been sending XAB teams of Airmen to the Middle East, as the service replaced its Air Expeditionary Wings with expeditionary air base units. The goal is to move to Air Task Forces, then Combat Wings, as Airmen spend more and more time training together stateside.

The first A-10 from the 175th Wing flew to the Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona last month, and by the beginning of fiscal 2026, the fleet will be nearly fully retired, as the wing plans to transition to a cyber mission without any aircraft, pending an environmental review this fall.

The decision, which leaves Maryland as the only state without a flying mission, has sparked strong pushback from Guard leaders and local politicians State leaders, who have vowed to push for the restoration of a flying mission. Progress, however, remains elusive.

Air Guardsmen Pull Off ‘Remarkable’ Antarctica Rescue

Air Guardsmen Pull Off ‘Remarkable’ Antarctica Rescue

April 17, 2025 | By David Roza

A pair of Wyoming Air National Guardsmen, an Active-Duty flight surgeon, and a flight crew from the New York Air National Guard teamed up to play a crucial role in a dramatic rescue earlier this year, helping save the life of a man suffering from a heart attack in Antarctica, one of the most remote regions on Earth.

Maj. Nate Krueger, a flight nurse, and Master Sgt. Lyndsey Glotfelty, an aeromedical technician, are both assigned to the 187th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, but they were deployed to McMurdo Station, an American outpost which supports scientific research in Antarctica year-round. Maj. Thomas Powell is currently flight surgeon there. The U.S. military makes frequent appearances at McMurdo as part of Operation Deep Freeze, the nearly 70-year-old ongoing mission to keep McMurdo and other stations in Antarctica supplied and supported.

The deployment heated up Feb. 13 when a 60-year-old man collapsed in McMurdo’s galley. A civilian contractor who had participated in more than 20 Deep Freeze Missions, the man had a “widow maker” heart attack “caused by a complete blockage of the left anterior descending artery,” according to an April 16 press release written by Wyoming’s 153rd Airlift Wing.

First responders—including Powell, Krueger, Glotfelty, and medical professionals from McMurdo’s fire department and the National Science Foundation—started CPR and gave the man several defibrillator shocks on the way to the McMurdo clinic. About 40 minutes of CPR, epinephrine shots, and eight defibrillation shocks later, the patient was stable, but he needed higher care immediately.

air guard antarctica
Master Sgt. Lyndsey Glotfelty, 187th Wyoming Air National Guard aeromedical evacuation technician, provide in-flight care for a heart attack victim aboard a LC-130 in route to Christchurch, New Zealand, Feb. 13, 2025. (U.S. Air Force courtesy photo)

That was a challenge: temperatures were around negative 31 degrees Fahrenheit, and one rescue attempt was abandoned due to severe blizzards. A Royal New Zealand Air Force aircraft with more medical staff onboard landed on McMurdo’s ice runway, but it was a U.S. Air Force LC-130 that flew the patient to Christchurch, New Zealand: a seven-hour, 2,500 mile flight.

Also known as the Skibird, each of the Air Force’s 10 LC-130s are operated by the New York Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing, thought it was not immediately clear if the rescue LC-130 was already at McMurdo or flew in from another location.

All told, it was about 12 hours in between the patient’s collapse and his arrival at the hospital in Christchurch, where he received two stents to reopen his arteries, according to the press release. He walked out of the hospital just a few days later.

Due to its remote location, McMurdo is not an ideal place to have a heart attack, but the smooth teamwork of the providers on site saved the man’s life, Krueger said.

“This was a truly remarkable case,” he said in the press release. “From the moment of collapse to the successful evacuation, every step was executed with precision and urgency. The coordination between emergency responders, the clinic team, and the flight crew made all the difference.”

Maj. Thomas Powell, McMurdo’s flight surgeon, described the rescue as “a win through teamwork and rapid emergency response.”

“Having a robust cooperative partnership between the National Science Foundation and the military was key to ensuring rapid medical care and evacuation of the patient,” he added.

Still, it wasn’t the only Anatarctica rescue mission flown in recent months. A March press release by the 109th Airlift Wing wrote that its Airmen carried out nine medical evacuations during its Antarctica support season from October to February. Five aircraft and 400 Airmen were deployed to McMurdo, where they moved 1,076 passengers, 900 tons of cargo, and 120,000 gallons of fuel as part of Operation Deep Freeze. 

Northrop Grumman Says Sentinel Program Not Affected by Promontory Blast

Northrop Grumman Says Sentinel Program Not Affected by Promontory Blast

April 17, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

The building destroyed by an explosion at Northrop Grumman’s Promontory, Utah, solid rocket motor complex on April 16 wasn’t directly supporting the LGM-35A Sentinel strategic missile effort, and the accident won’t delay that program or others, a company spokesperson said.

“The incident at our Utah facility on April 16 will not affect our progress on any Northrop Grumman programs,” a company spokesperson said. “Specifically, nothing produced in the building supports the Sentinel program.”

The Air Force had no comment and referred all queries about the accident to Northrop.

The company declined to say what specific activities were conducted in the building, which was largely destroyed by an explosion at about 7:35 am local time, although industry sources said the building was used in part to store materials used to make solid rocket motors.

Company officials said there were “no major injuries” to personnel near the building. The building’s sides were blown out by the explosion, leaving only framing and what appears to be interior large-diameter piping and ductwork. A fire inside was put out by first responders.

An industry source said the accident won’t affect Northrop’s ability to meet its commitments, and that the company has “other sources” for the materials destroyed in the blast.

Local news outlets said Northrop had not yet responded to their questions about what chemicals may have been released as a result of the explosion.

Company officials were anxious to dissociate the accident from Sentinel, as that program is already under intense scrutiny after cost and schedule overruns triggered a review mandated by the Nunn-McCurdy Act last year. The Pentagon has certified the program to continue, but the expected cost has skyrocketed to around $140 billion.

Pentagon leaders have told Congress the bulk of the added cost has to do with the massive civil engineering effort needed to deploy the missiles in new or renovated silos, with associated launch control facilities. They have said that development of the Sentinel missile itself is on track and cost.

Northrop’s sprawling Promontory complex, in a desert area north of the Great Salt Lake, is spread out precisely because the work there involves highly volatile materials, and has now been the scene of four serious accidents over the last 40 years, three of which took place under previous owners:

  • In 1985, building M-75 was destroyed by an explosion attributed to static discharge which ignited rocket motor materials. The plant was at that time operated by Morton Thiokol.
  • In 1987, five people were killed by an explosion while working with a rocket motor associated with the M-X, or Peacekeeper strategic missile.
  • In 2005, when the facility was operating under Alliant Tech Systems/Thiokol, one person was killed and another injured when an explosion occurred as they were transferring the chemical compound triethoxy-trinitrobenzene, or TETNB, from filter trays into five-gallon buckets.
  • No cause has yet been identified for the April 16, 2025 explosion. Northrop said the accident is being investigated, but did not comment on what agency or agencies are conducting the investigation.

Northrop acquired Orbital ATK and its solid rocket motor business in 2018. The unit has since been reorganized as Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems.

Industry sources said Northrop may withhold further details of the accident and its impact on company activities until Northrop leaders conduct their first-quarter results on April 22.

Air Force Tests Out New Air-to-Air Training in Europe Focused on Drones

Air Force Tests Out New Air-to-Air Training in Europe Focused on Drones

April 17, 2025 | By Chris Gordon

U.S. Air Forces in Europe is using one of its premier F-16 squadrons to develop and practice new tactics and weapons to counter drones. 

The exercise stems from the service’s experience in the Middle East, fighting off Iranian and Houthi attacks.

The 555th Fighter Squadron, based at Aviano Air Base, Italy, participated in the Weapons System Evaluation Program (WSEP) exercise this month in the United Kingdom. The exercise, commonly known as Combat Archer, is typically held in the United States at ranges at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., and Hill Air Force Base, Utah. 

Air Force experts were on hand to assess the air-to-air performance of the squadron.

In a statement, U.S. Air Forces in Europe boss Gen. James B. Hecker said hosting the exercise in the U.K. saves millions of dollars and provides much-needed training for its units in what it hopes is a repeatable model.

Traveling to the U.S. for training would normally cost millions of dollars—likely cost-prohibitive as a standalone exercise—and require tanker and airlift support to get equipment and personnel across the Atlantic, USAFE officials said.

“Holding the exercise in the European area of responsibility provides significant strategic advantages, reducing the need for transatlantic aircraft movements, and resulting in substantial cost savings,” Hecker said.

Over seven days of flying this month, the F-16s from the 555th or “Triple Nickle” Fighter Squadron flew approximately 70 sorties, firing off around 10 AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles and over 60 rockets at target drones at the U.K.’s MOD Aberporth range on the west coast of Wales near Cardigan Bay, a USAFE spokesperson said. 

The squadron practiced on Banshee Jet 80 and Banshee Whirlwind drones from the British company QinetiQ, a defense tech company that operates the drones and ranges. That’s different from previous Combat Archer exercises in the U.S., which use the QF-16—old F-16s turned into unmanned targets—and the BQM-167A, another high-performance target drone.

“We don’t really want to shoot at a threat that is representative of a jet. We’re looking to shoot at things that are smaller and that are a better threat representation,” Lt. Col. Eric “Diesel” Kitaif, the commander of the 555th Fighter Squadron, told Air & Space Forces Magazine in a video interview.

“They’re much smaller with a lower infrared signature than the traditional drones that people shoot at Archer,” Kitaif said. “For what I am trying to train my squadron to do, the threat that we are fighting out here is perfect. They’re slow, they’re hard to detect with the radar, they’re low IR signature. We actually get to see all those things and we’ve learned a lot from fighting those two threats.”

Pilots, weapons, and maintenance personnel and equipment from Aviano’s 31st Fighter Wing deployed to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, England, for the exercise, including:

  • 555th Fighter Squadron
  • 555th Fighter Generation Squadron
  • 31st Logistics Readiness Squadron
  • 31st Munitions Squadron
  • 31st Maintenance Squadron
  • 31st Operations Support Squadron.

The rocket system being tested is the AGR-20 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS)—Hydra-70 rockets that have been converted with a laser guidance kit to turn them into precision-guided munitions. It was designed for air-to-ground use but has been used to shoot down Houthi drones in the past year, U.S. officials previously told Air & Space Forces Magazine. 

The rockets cost less than $40,000, the officials say, a significant advancement in driving down the cost of defeating the hundreds of drone attacks in the Middle East. To shoot down drones, the Air Force has previously used AIM-120 AMRAAM medium-range radar-guided missiles, which cost roughly $1 million each, or short-range AIM-9 Sidewinders, which carry a price tag of hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on the variant, with the costly AIM-9X model commonly used by the USAF.

A U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon flies through the sky to launch a missile during Combat Archer UK at RAF Lakenheath, England, April 15, 2025. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Zachary Jakel

“We’re training to a new threat and a new weapon to handle that threat,” Kitaif said.

To judge the exercise, the 83rd Fighter Weapons Squadron from Tyndall brought a 33-person team, fulfilling a pre-deployment air-to-air weapons employment evaluation requirement for the 555th Fighter Squadron, a spokesperson for U.S. Air Forces in Europe said. USAFE has often provided combat airpower in the Middle East in recent years, including F-16s from Aviano’s 510th Fighter Squadron and the 555th Fighter Squadron.

”We want to learn while we’re here. WSEP is evaluating us, but in my book, we are training,” Kitaif said.

“Most of us have never shot a missile,” he added. “So getting to see that, in and of itself, is a training opportunity you don’t get anywhere. And that can directly translate to combat.“

The F-15E Strike Eagles from the 48th Fighter Wing at Lakenheath helped defeat Iran’s attack on Israel in April alongside other U.S. Air Force and coalition aircraft, downing dozens of drones. The drone threat is also a real-world concern in Europe, as Russia has used some of the same types of drones seen in the Middle East to attack Ukrainian troops, infrastructure, and cities.

“We were deployed just before them,” Kitaif said of the 48th Fighter Wing. “We were also tasked to do this type of defense against the one-way attack drones. … We did not have the opportunity for the training prior to go to actually see what it would look like in our targeting pod, to run an intercept against something that is that difficult to attack at air speed and shoot missiles at it. Back then, we were loaded up with AIM-9Xs, ready to attack one-way attack drones. Now we are training to the AGR-20 FALCO system. I can carry a lot more of them, and they’re much, much more cost-effective against one-way attack drones.”

One drone was shot down with an AIM-9M, but most shots did not use live warheads and were instead “kinematic” kills so the drones can be reused, a USAFE spokesperson said.

Some Air Force F-16s in the Middle East have been seen fitted with infrared targeting pods and one or two Hydra rocket pods, as well as AMRAAMs and AIM-9s—F-16s can carry 14 rockets per station, up to 28 rockets. To guide an APKWS rocket, the target must be laser-designated or “lazed,” unlike more expensive “fire-and-forget” missiles. This means air-to-air use of the rocket pods is most suited to defeating slow-flying targets such as one-way attack drones. That’s practice the 555th Fighter Squadron needs.

“Employing these is challenging to do,” Kitaif said. An F-16 can employ the rockets on its own, but it must laze the target and fire the rocket, so multiple F-16s make the job easier.

“I need to put it in the right regime, and I need to make sure that there is laser energy on the target. And so getting both of those things to happen can be challenging to be the person both employing the munition and the person lazing that munition,” Kitaif said. “None of us have ever trained to [use rockets] air-to-air, and almost all of us have never trained to it air-to-ground either. So it’s beneficial to be able to carry these out here and get to train to it.”

Explosion Destroys Building at Northrop Grumman Solid Rocket Motor Facility

Explosion Destroys Building at Northrop Grumman Solid Rocket Motor Facility

April 16, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

Editor’s Note: This story was updated April 17 with additional details from Northrop Grumman. Further coverage is also available here.

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 officials say the accident will not delay any of its programs. The Air Force referred inquiries to Northrop.

A Northrop spokesman would not characterize the function of the building, and whether it was involved in production of solid rocket motors, or SRMs. Industry sources later told Air & Space Forces Magazine the building was used in part to store materials used to make solid rocket motors.

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. However, Northrop officials said the destroyed building is not involved in the Sentinel program.

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

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

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.