Florida Air National Guard Starts Stealth Upgrade with First F-35s

March 10, 2025 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

The Florida Air National Guard welcomed its first F-35A jets last week as the Air Force continues to retire F-15 Eagles and aims to establish the fifth-gen fighters as the “primary aircraft securing the southeastern U.S.”

The 125th Fighter Wing, known as “the Thunder,” received three of the stealth fighters on March 4, a wing spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. While the total number of F-35As and their arrival timeline haven’t been finalized, the spokesperson added that the wing expects its F-35 fleet to be roughly equivalent to the number of F-15s it had. The 125th Fighter Wing hosts one fighter squadron, which comprises roughly two dozen aircraft.

“This advanced aircraft directly supports our national security objectives, keeping us poised to respond, dominate, and win in any battlespace,” Col. Mansour Elhihi, the wing commander said in a news release.

An aircraft maintainer assigned to the Florida Air National Guard’s 125th Maintenance Group marshals in a F-35A Lightning II aircraft during its arrival at the 125th Fighter Wing located in Jacksonville, Florida, March 4, 2025. U.S. Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Jacob Hancock

The F-35 transition is expected to boost airpower along Florida’s coastline. The wing’s pilots and maintainers are currently training with “state-of-the-art simulators and mission planning systems” to prepare for the fifth-gen fighters, according to the wing. Jacksonville, also home to Naval Station Mayport and Naval Air Station, offers an ideal setting for joint integration between the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, the military said.

The service also expects the stealth integration to enhance the ACE concept—a strategy focused on rapid deployment and operating from small teams across dispersed airfields to complicate adversary targeting and ensure combat effectiveness.

“The F-35 ensures the ANG remains at the forefront of national defense,” said Maj. Gen. John D. Haas, the Adjutant General of the Florida National Guard. “It’s not just about fighting wars—it’s about deterring them before they ever start.”

For nearly two years, the Airmen at 125th Fighter Wing have been conducting conversion training and making infrastructure changes to prepare for the transition. The unit began phasing out its F-15C Eagles in 2023, with the wing sharing photos of some decommissioned aircraft being shipped to the “Boneyard” at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., formally known as the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group. But not all of the service’s retired Eagles go to the Boneyard—some are donated to museums or for NASA’s studies, where they help capture data for airborne platforms.

F-35A Lightning II aircraft arrive at the Florida Air National Guard’s 125th Fighter Wing located in Jacksonville, Florida, March 4, 2025. U.S. Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Jacob Hancock

Most air bases, both domestic and abroad, are transitioning from F-15s to Lightning IIs, with plans to retire the F-15C/D fleet by 2026. However, some units are replacing their F-15s with the F-15EX, such as the 142nd Wing of the Portland ANG, which received its first F-15EX Eagle II last year, and Kadena Air Base, Japan, which will eventually receive F-15EXs.

For now, it remains to be seen whether the Florida wing’s rest of the F-35 delivery will be impacted by the manufacturer’s backlog. Lockheed Martin had to store newly built jets for nearly a year due to incomplete software testing, but resumed deliveries in July and has since worked to clear the backlog. For 2025, the company expects to deliver 170 to 190 F-35s, including both new aircraft and jets held in storage for the Tech Refresh 3 upgrade. This would be a significant increase from the 110 jets delivered in 2024 and just 98 in 2023.

The wing is now the fourth ANG unit in the nation to house the world’s most advanced stealth fighters, joining the Vermont ANG’s 158th Fighter Wing, Wisconsin ANG’s 115th Fighter Wing, and Alabama ANG’s 187th Fighter Wing.

Additionally, Barnes Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts is also poised to receive a new fleet of 20 F-35A Lightning II aircraft next year, replacing the 104th Fighter Wing’s current F-15C/D models. This decision was first announced by the Air Force in 2023, and confirmed in December following an environmental review.

As First F-35 Block 4 Updates Start to Roll Out, Block 5 List Is Taking Shape

March 10, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

AURORA, Colo.—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 tricks that have been added to the F-22 aren’t migrating to the F-35.

Pilots should see “a much higher increase in stability” with this summer’s Tech Refresh 3 software release, Chauncey McIntosh, Lockheed’s vice president and general manager for the F-35, said in a briefing for reporters at the AFA Warfare Symposium.

Issues with TR-3 has been a sticking point for months now. Back in mid-2023, the JPO stopped accepting deliveries of F-35s because the airplanes were being built with TR-3 systems, but TR-3 was not yet fully tested. Finally, in July 2024, program executive officer Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt lifted the hold on deliveries, saying he was satisfied that the TR-3-equipped jets were safe to fly after the test force demonstrated less need to reboot the software in flight.

TR-3 is the hardware and software foundation of the 80 or so improvements that comprise the Block 4 upgrade. It includes a powerful new processor, expanded memory, and new displays for the F-35, among other enhancements, which will allow the F-35 to employ new targeting, navigation, communications, and electronic warfare systems, as well as new munitions.

Block 4 is “really going to be about enhancing the sensor upgrades, the sensor fusion, and also bringing the new weapons” to the jet, McIntosh said

In an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine, McIntosh said the threat is driving continual revisions to the roadmap that lays out the top priorities for Block 4 and later improvements.

“We have to continue to advance this airplane regarding where that threat is going,” he said. “And so we’ve laid out a plan and a strategy for Block 4, and what we need to do to ensure we stay ahead of that threat.”

The TR-3 “provides the computing resources this plane needs to move us into the next generation. … So, to me, that is a check. We now have the resources needed that we can build upon the foundation for this project.”

That inevitably leads to questions about the future of the program: “We’re looking at … what do we need for Block 5? What do we need for Block 6? And it’s really taking a long view,” he said.

Both Lockheed and the JPO are studying what will be needed in future upgrades, and those will likely shift over time, McIntosh added.

“Working with the Joint Program Office, there are going to be capabilities that are higher priority, and [some] … that will continue to be important, but maybe not as high priority as number one and number two, and so that list will constantly evolve as we continue to look at what the threat is doing,” he said.

The top two priorities for now are expanded and upgraded sensors and weapons, “and that’s what you’re going to see us do for now [and] the foreseeable future, throughout Block 4 and Block 5,” he said.

Asked if Lockheed could re-use capabilities developed for the F-22—such as infrared search-and-track systems or low-drag stealth fuel tanks and pylons, McIntosh said they are being considered but have not yet been added to the list.

“That’s going to be an evaluation,” he said, “so we’re not ready to say we’re going to jump in right now, but we’re going to constantly evaluate whether it’s tanks [or] an IRST pod. Anything that the Raptor is buying down as a tech risk, we’ll evaluate. … At this point, I’m not going to say, hey, yes, we’re definitely doing something that’s Raptor-related.”

He also said there are no hard timelines for Block 5 and later programs. Some capabilities may move forward from Block 5 to 4, and some may be deferred to later blocks to allow the technology to mature. Schmidt told Congress last year that some Block 4 capabilities will be deferred by years in order to concentrate on more urgent needs.

Some Block 5 capabilities will be released during Block 4 “because we can, and the timing’s right,” McIntosh said, without disclosing those improvements. “It’s going to be continuous rollout of capability as those [capabilities] are ready.”

Eventually, the JPO will submit to Congress an “official” list of what constitutes Block 4, he said.

The Government Accountability Office has several times urged Congress to break out Block 4 as a separate major defense program from the F-35, in order to get finer resolution on its successes and delays. The GAO said that big setbacks in Block 4 don’t trip Nunn-McCurdy breaches because they represent a low percentage of the overall F-35 cost, which is in excess of $1 trillion dollars but would in any other program be major disruptions.

One Block 4 capability already resident on the F-35 is the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System, McIntosh said, which senses when the aircraft is headed for a crash and pulls the aircraft up and away from danger. The system has saved lives in the F-16, typically when a pilot has lost consciousness due to excessive G-forces.

“All these decisions of what capability moves right or moves left is really all about the operational analysis that we’re doing in conjunction with the government, and getting to advise them on our thoughts,” McIntosh said.

McIntosh would not comment on what capabilities might appear in Block 5 or later, other than to say they will be “the most important … because by the time we build them, we’re going to maintain that dominance over that adversary. So yes, it’s always going to be a Block 4, Block 5, Block 6,” following in the lineage of other fighter programs continually upgrading.

McIntosh repeated previous Lockheed statements that the company expects to deliver between 170 and 195 F-35s this year, having delivered a total of 110 to the U.S. and partner countries in 2024. The type reached 1 million flying hours just before the symposium.

A company official reported that nearly all the jets that were stored during the delivery hold have now been delivered.

McIntosh declined to say whether full TR-3 testing and certification will be complete this year. The JPO has predicted it will happen in the fall, but company officials have suggested it could be early 2026.

How One Air Force General Explains Information Warfare—Using Football

March 7, 2025 | By David Roza

AURORA, Colo.—As deputy commander of the 16th Air Force, the organization responsible for information warfare, Maj. Gen. Larry Broadwell has a difficult task explaining what he does to outsiders.

“It’s hard to really understand the importance of it,” Broadwell said March 4 at the AFA Warfare Symposium. “I was trying to explain this to my dad at the breakfast table one time, and he just wasn’t getting it.”

Broadwell’s father isn’t the only one; a 2024 report by the RAND Corporation said information warfare in the Air Force lacks clear roles and responsibilities, adequate resources, and a unifying identity, which can contribute to unclear expectations of what information warfare can do and how it fits into the joint force.

“Airmen cited a sense of paralysis related to this issue, noting, ‘without a [socialized] definition of IW, everyone in the USAF IW community is unsure of how to proceed, what it means, and what is expected of them,’” RAND wrote.

Information warfare involves using military capabilities in or through “the information environment” to affect adversary behavior and protect against adversary attempts to do the same. It encompasses several fields, including cyber operations, electromagnetic spectrum operations (EMSO), public affairs, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), and weather, but none of that really rolls off the tongue.

Broadwell realized he needed an analogy, so he created one using America’s most popular sport: football. While U.S. military leaders frequently use football terminology to make a point, Broadwell’s analogy was unusually elaborate and took about two minutes to explain during a panel discussion.

It starts with the offensive coordinator, the coach who manages a football team’s offense. The offensive coordinator calls a play and relays it to the quarterback via a radio in the quarterback’s helmet. The quarterback briefs the plan with the rest of the offensive unit in a huddle, but the quarterback can change the play based on what he sees on the line, also known as calling an audible.

“He gets to the line, looks across at the linebackers, he says, ‘Hey, looks like the linebackers are kind of soft on their heels, they’re probably going to drop back into coverage,’” Broadwell said. “I’m going to call an audible, I’m going to hand it off to the running back.”

The quarterback hands the football to the running back, who runs the ball two yards before being tackled by the defending team.

“A success? Maybe,” Broadwell said. “So that’s kind of where we are today, but where I see information taking us in the future is a much more enhanced position.”

The analogy starts the same way: the quarterback gets the play from the offensive coordinator and goes to the line. But instead of guessing what the defense will do, the quarterback gets the intercepted play that the defensive coordinator sent to the linebacker.

“So he knows not what it looks like, but what they’re actually going to do,” Broadwell said.

This time, the quarterback can call a more effective audible because he knows exactly how to evade the defensive linemen. In Broadwell’s analogy, the quarterback fakes a handoff to the running back to distract the linebackers, which buys him time to throw the ball.

“Here’s where it gets good,” Broadwell said. “He looks across the field and he doesn’t have to decide who’s open. Information tells him who’s open. So the 1.34 seconds an NFL quarterback has to make a decision, he makes that decision immediately.”

Stretching the analogy even further, information warfare enables mid-flight updates to the football, telling it to adjust to a different receiver if the original is about to be covered by a defending player.

“So as that safety crashes down, now there’s an in-flight update provided to the football, and it no longer goes to the star receiver who was running a 10-yard out,” Broadwell said. “You see where this is going, it goes to the open receiver to score a touchdown.”

Information warfare, Broadwell summed up, “is the difference between a two-yard gain and a touchdown.”

Timothy Jackson breaks a tackle from Jaylon McClinton on Nov. 2, 2019 during a game against Army at Falcon Stadium. U.S. Air Force photo/Trevor Cokley

Now What?

The football analogy makes the case for information warfare, but the tough part is how to implement it when the football is a fighter jet, a pallet of humanitarian aid, or some other effect.

“The trick for us is to figure this out, because information is going to be readily available to us,” Broadwell said. “It’s figuring out what information in this analogy gets to the quarterback, what information makes it to the football so that we can score the touchdown.”

Indeed, decision-makers may find themselves overwhelmed by all the information coming from sensors in space, underwater, and everywhere in between. Other officials made similar points at the symposium.

“If you’d asked me five years ago, I’d have said our analysts need more data,” said Greg Ryckman, deputy director for global integration for the Defense Intelligence Agency. “Today, I would tell you that they’re swimming in data, and they have to figure out how to make sense of the data.”

The 16th Air Force launched the Phoenix Initiative to develop better information management solutions with industry and academia.

“The white hot areas of innovation are areas where the tactical expert is confronted with a problem and he meets with academia and/or industry to solve the problem,” Broadwell said.

But there are still challenges in terms of organization, funding, and focus. Last year, RAND critiqued the Air Force for not publishing formal, actionable requirements laying out the exact roles and responsibilities for IW organizations, which frustrates and confuses both IW Airmen and the non-IW groups they work with, RAND wrote.

The Air Force also plans to elevate Air Forces Cyber to a service component command, which leaves question marks over the future of the 16th Air Force, since AFCYBER is a significant proportion of the 49,000-strong unit.

“We’re elevating our cyber forces and there are a lot of intertwined capabilities where we and [National Security Agency] particularly work together,” then-Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said during a visit to 16th Air Force in October. “At the end of the day what drives the decision is going to be what’s going to make us more competitive, what’s going to put us in a better position to compete with China, not just in near term, but over long-term strategic competition.”

SDA Delays Next Launches, This Time to Late Summer

March 7, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

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. Once the first launch is complete, a spokesperson said, additional launches will follow almost monthly.

The delayed satellites make up “Tranche 1” of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, SDA’s low-Earth orbit constellation for data transport and missile warning and tracking. The agency had initially aimed to start Tranche 1 launches by September 2024, but the timeline has slipped multiple times; as of November, SDA was targeting March or April 2025.

“As we progress through a normal assembly, integration, and testing campaign, with the added challenge of late supplier deliveries, it has become clear additional time is required for system readiness to meet the Tranche 1 minimum viable capability,” the spokesperson said.

Speaking on background, an SDA official said that delays affected the satellites’ optical communication terminals, propulsion systems, encryption devices, and more. Supply chain issues have rippled throughout the aerospace industry in recent years.

Ultimately, the SDA spokeperson said the agency is hoping to deliver “the entire initial warfighting capability of the PWSA in early calendar year 2027, consistent with warfighter expectations.”

The official clarified that while that is a delay from previous schedules, the combatant commands were expecting capabilities in 2027 and SDA still plans to meet that timeline.

As the initial capabilities are turned over to combatant commands, SDA will pivot to Tranche 2, now set to begin launching in fiscal 2027. For now, the official said SDA is not tweaking its launch plans for Tranche 2, although it has adjusted its approach for Tranche 3; its solicitations to industry indicate they will now have more time between contract award and launch to complete the satellites.

The lastest delay for Tranche 1 is the latest setback in a turbulent few months for SDA. In early January, longtime director Derek M. Tournear was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into a contract award; veteran acquisition official William Blauser is now SDA’s Acting Director. The agency has canceled the contract that led to Tournear’s suspension, and it remains unclear when or if he will return.

A recent Pentagon memo called for an “independent review” to determine the “health” of SDA and consider whether it should remain a semi-independent acquisition arm or be absorbed into other Space Force offices.

In late February, the Government Accountability Office reported its view that SDA could be investing too heavily in satellite-to-satellite laser communications before proving the technology works. SDA officials have disputed some of the GAO findings, but say they will address the watchdog’s concerns and prove that their laser communication concept is viable.

For SDA, which has set out to disrupt space acquisition with ambitious timelines and pricepoints, the recent challenges add up. It has now been more than a year since SDA finished launching its Tranche 0 satellites—a short time in conventional satellite development, but far longer than Tournear and his team intended. Tranche 1 delays don’t help, but even with delays, SDA’s program schedule remains ambitious and advanced in comparison to most government space programs.

X-37B Spaceplane Showed New Techniques in Latest Flight

March 7, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

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 X-37 launched Dec. 28, 2023, making its 435 days in orbit the second shortest of its seven missions and its briefest in more than a decade.

The Space Force used its latest mission to fly in “different orbital regimes,” experiment with space domain awareness technologies, and investigate radiation effects on NASA materials; the spacecraft also carried a number of classified payloads.

In October, officials said the spaceplane would conduct an aerobraking maneuver, dipping it into the atmosphere to generate drag to slow down as it came out of a highly elliptical orbit, something it had not done previously.

Experts speculated at the time that the maneuver could influence future satellite design as the Space Force explores ideas for “dynamic space operations”—moving satellites around and between orbits to complicate targeting for an adversary. Currently, the Space Force keeps most satellites in place and tries to maneuver them as little as possible to conserve fuel, because existing satellites cannot refuel and their service life is effectively over once its fuel supply runs out.

Artist rendering of the X-37B conducting an aerobraking maneuver using the drag of Earth’s atmosphere. (Courtesy graphic by Boeing Space)

Aerobraking could be a way to maneuver while conserving fuel, however. In a release, the Space Force said the X-37 successfully performed the maneuver to lower itself into low-Earth orbit.

“Mission 7 broke new ground by showcasing the X-37B’s ability to flexibly accomplish its test and experimentation objectives across orbital regimes,” said Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman in a statement. “The successful execution of the aerobraking maneuver underscores the U.S. Space Force’s commitment to pushing the bounds of novel space operations in a safe and responsible manner.”

The U.S. Space Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Mission Seven successfully landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., March 7, 2025. U.S. Space Force courtesy photo

First developed by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office and built by Boeing, the unmanned X-37 was transferred to the Space Force but is still supported by the Air Force RCO. It had spent more and more time in orbit with each successive mission until this latest return. The Space Force offered no explanation for why this most recent mission was half the length of its previous one:

908 days—May 17, 2020, to Nov. 12, 2022

780 days—Sept. 7, 2017, to Oct. 27, 2019

718 days—May 20, 2015, to May 7, 2017

674 days—Dec. 11, 2012, to Oct. 17 2014

468 days—March 5, 2011, to June 16, 2012

224 days—April 22, 2010, to Dec. 3, 2010

Back in 2020, Saltzman suggested that the X-37B might exemplify “technology that has served its purpose and [maybe] it’s time to start looking at the next available capability.”

But by the December 2023 launch, Saltzman had become convinced that “if we have a capability, the idea of creating a gap in that capability is a concern” to national security leaders and that backing out of a capability without a replacement is a risk national security leaders do not want to take.

NASA is working on its own spaceplane, Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser. The first flight of that craft is scheduled for no earlier than May.

Space Force Secretly Tested Sensors that Alert When China Is Watching

March 7, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

AURORA, Colo.—The Space Rapid Capabilities Office quietly launched prototype payloads on a satellite two years ago to signal operators when the spacecraft is being tracked by China’s space surveillance network—a capability the office could deploy aboard other satellites.

Director Kelly Hammett revealed the tests during a media roundtable at the AFA Warfare Symposium as an example of the Space RCO’s operational successes.

“We launched some situational awareness indications and warning payloads on the [LDPE-3A], a satellite in January of 2023 that those payloads have been flying for a couple of years now, collecting all kinds of very interesting data on, I’ll say, the Chinese SISO network,” Hammett said.

A SISO network refers to the sensors and radars used for Space Object Surveillance and Identification. China in recent years has launched hundreds of intelligence satellites to watch Earth, but less is known about how China monitors space.

Space Force officials say China is developing the ability to track and target U.S. satellites. USSF has its own satellites, radars, and telescopes that track objects in space, including the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program and the Space-Based Space Surveillance program.

But the payloads being tested by the Space RCO would boost any satellite’s situational awareness, and could theoretically be added to any satellite bus.

“These are sensors that can tell whether you’re being observed, tracked, targeted—those types of things,” Hammett said. “That’s a capability that we’re trying to drive into the larger Space Force.”

In January, the Space RCO disclosed it is tasking a number of space startups with exploring technologies for “own-ship awareness,” the mission that the LDPE-3A payloads started testing two years ago.

While space domain awareness and space situational awareness focus on tracking other objects in orbit, own-ship awareness is the ability to “detect and report anomalies, hazards, and threats to individual satellites,” according to a Space RCO release from January.

“We really want to focus on the operator’s needs for awareness,” a Space RCO official told Air & Space Forces Magazine in January. There’s someone on console who is responsible for the health of that satellite, responsible for deciding where to move it or not, and that person needs awareness of their own ship.”

At the symposium, Hammett confirmed the two efforts are connected.

“We’re doing [an] on-orbit, self-awareness indications and warning type of thing,” Hammet said. “We’re flying payloads that do this right now. We would like to proliferate this capability across the entire Space Force. So how do we get more providers? How do we get cheaper and more affordable options?”

The own-ship awareness program, still in its infancy, will pair small companies together to develop pitches without a formal procurement office, with the idea that the results can be incorporated into future satellite programs.

SCAR

Much of the Space RCO’s programs are highly classified, but a few are known. Perhaps the biggest: the Satellite Communications Augmentation Resource (SCAR), which will provide desperately needed upgrades to the Satellite Control Network (SCN).

SCN includes 19 antennas stationed around the world, from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to the village of Oakhanger in southern England to Schriever Space Force Base, Colo. The system is used to track satellites’ locations, collect health and status reports, and control subsystems, such as power supplies, antennas and mechanical and thermal systems. But SCN’s antennas are old and limited; they can only connect with one satellite at a time, a design limitation that was manageable in the past but is increasingly untenable in an era of proliferating spacecraft satellites.

SCAR will add electronically steerable phased-array antennas to the network, enabling operators to connect with multiple satellites at once. Hammett said he expects the first of these new antennas to be delivered later this year from USSF’s supplier, Blue Halo. He also said the RCO has found it can “modularize” the antennas, known as “Badgers,” to better suit a given mission requirement.

“You can configure various site installation configurations depending on the mission,” Hammett said. “So you might have, for example, two badgers for a LEO set of contacts, you might have four or six if you want wide field of regard over GEO, [or] if you want narrow, you might have four. So we’re in the process of [defining] what configuration you need for which mission sets.”

WATCH: Going Deeper on the Significance of Space Warfighting

March 7, 2025 | By Tobias Naegele

AURORA, Colo.—Space superiority emerged as a major theme of the 2025 AFA Warfare Symposium, so Air & Space Forces Magazine Editor-in-Chief Tobias Naegele spoke with retired Space Force Col. Jennifer Reeves, now a senior fellow with the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, to go deeper on the significance of that theme and what it means for the Space Force.

WATCH: Taking Stock of Arctic Defense with Houston Cantwell

March 7, 2025 | By Tobias Naegele

AURORA, Colo.—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 his research and panel discussion on Arctic defense and how the U.S. is combatting Russia and China in the region.

Space Force Leaders Start Work on Golden Dome, See Massive Effort Ahead

March 6, 2025 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

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.

In an executive order signed a week after his inauguration, Trump directed the Secretary of Defense to submit an outline for how to make Golden Dome a reality within 60 days. To make that happen, the Pentagon will have to clear numerous legal, technical, and cultural hurdles, said Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael Guetlein.

“Without a doubt, our biggest challenge is going to be organization, behavior, and culture,” Guetlein said at the National Security Innovation Base Summit on March 5. Golden Dome has a “magnitude of the Manhattan Project,” Guetlein added, and it’s going to take “heavy lift” across all the organizations involved.

Originally called “Iron Dome for America” after Israel’s short-range air defense system, Golden Dome would have a much larger and more complex scale, officials say. It is meant to incorporate satellite constellations for missile warning, space-based sensors, missile interceptors, and advanced communication systems.

Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman has said the Space Force will play a “central role” in Golden Dome, a point repeated by leaders at the AFA Warfare Symposium this week. But Guetlein noted that what agency is going to lead the project “hasn’t been decided yet.”

Organizations from across the Pentagon are likely to be involved, including the Missile Defense Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, U.S. Space Command, and services like the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

Integrating all of those military and intelligence operations—governed by separate legal and bureaucratic frameworks—will be one of the key challenges of the project.

“We’ve also got to break down the barriers of Title 10 and Title 50,” said Guetlein, referring to the sections of U.S. law governing intelligence and military matters. Integrating data from the intelligence community, such as real-time sensor information from satellites, and sharing it with military units “in a time-relevant manner, and get that data to the shooter, in a manner of time that can actually deter the attack” will be crucial for Golden Dome, Guetlein said.

The project will also have to rely heavily on advanced and new technologies. Col. Robert Davis, program executive officer of Space Systems Command’s space sensing directorate, stressed the need for effective “kill chains”—the process of tracking targets, processing sensor data, and passing it to interceptors. This technology, which has proven successful in Israel, will need to be adapted to a much larger scale.

“I imagine there’s maybe a strong need to continue to expand on the work that Space Force is already doing to pivot our architecture to be able to track hypersonics with the LEO and MEO layers,” Davis said at the AFA Warfare Symposium.

Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, Commander, Space Systems Command, at the AFA Warfare Symposium on March 3, 2025. Photo by Jud McCrehin/staff

Lt. Gen. Philip A. Garrant, head of SSC, also said at the symposium that the groundwork for Golden Dome is underway, but much of his team’s effort is focused on understanding “what the requirements and the allocation of resources will be.” While SSC is conducting literature review to determine which technologies can be accelerated and which new innovations may be required, much of the research, for now, is aimed at determining “what might be feasible from a physics perspective.”

Earlier this year, both the Space Development Agency and the Missile Defense Agency tasked contractors with proposing solutions to meet Golden Dome’s requirements, including a hypersonic and ballistic tracking space sensor layer and proliferated space-based interceptors for boost-phase intercept. But some of these novel technologies can be a “real challenge,” said Lt. Gen. Shawn W. Bratton, the Space Force’s top officer for strategy, plans, programs, and requirements, describing the complexity of interceptors from space as “no joke of a physics problem.”

Guetlein also highlighted the need to conduct more testing and training in space, which would be crucial for improving the operational capabilities of Golden Dome.

“The authority that we would ask right out of the gate is the authority to do on-orbit training and testing that we’re not capable of doing today,” said Guetlein, adding that the service is currently very constrained in that way. “We would ask that open up so that we can increase our readiness of our of our forces on the front line, to be able to do that ‘protect and defend’ mission.”

Trump, for his part, isn’t backing away from the the Golden Dome project, mentioning it during his address to Congress this week.

“My focus is on building the most powerful military of the future,” Trump said on March 4, calling the project the first step toward realizing that vision.

By the end of this month, the White House is expecting a comprehensive plan for Golden Dome that includes a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements, accelerated deployment of space-based sensors, plans for new interceptors, and strategies for secure supply chains and funding.