Space Force Satellite Refueling Demos Coming in 2026 and 2028

April 8, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—The Space Force will have one of its satellites refueled for the first time next summer, an initial step toward a future in which satellites can maneuver like aircraft in the sky or ships on the sea to dodge threats and hold adversaries at risk.

However, there is also uncertainty about whether the Pentagon will invest heavily in the capability and what model for refueling it might pick as the best option.

Startup Astroscale announced the summer 2026 target date for the first refueling mission at the Space Symposium. Its APS-R spacecraft will launch to just above geosynchronous orbit, refuel a Space Force satellite, refuel itself from another spacecraft built by fellow startup Orbit Fab, then refuel another Space Force bird.

Typically, operators try to conserve satellites’ fuel as much as possible. Once the spacecraft runs out, its service life is functionally over. Space Force leaders have suggested they want to be able to maneuver “without regret” to adapt to an increasingly congested and contested environment. To do so will likely require some kind of logistical infrastructure.

“Logistics are no longer theoretical. They are operational,” said Clare Martin, Astroscale’s executive vice president. “It’s about enabling sustained maneuverability, extending the life of critical space assets, and giving our national security community the ability to adapt quickly in a dynamic space domain.”

Astroscale’s mission has a six-month window, but the actual refueling will happen much quicker, said Ian Thomas, the project manager at Astroscale. Both Astroscale and Orbit Fab’s satellites will stay above GEO so that they can avoid interfering with other satellites in the orbit and drift relative to them, getting closer to potential client satellites as needed.

Astroscale and Orbit Fab had previously announced a partnership in January 2024—Orbit Fab wants to build fuel depots that function as “gas stations in space” where refueling “shuttles” like APS-R can collect fuel to carry to other satellites.

space force refueling mobility — An artist’s rendering of one of Orbit Fab’s fuel depots in space. Graphic courtesy of Orbit Fab

Orbit Fab’s first depot will launch on the same rocket as Astroscale’s refueler in June 2026, Adam Harris, chief commercial officer at Orbit Fab, confirmed in an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The mission’s funding is coming from multiple sources—a sign of both the broad interest in refueling’s potential and its uncertain market.

Space Systems Command awarded some $44.5 million in contracts back in 2022 for two “Tetra-5” satellites that will be refueled.

The Defense Innovation Unit awarded a $13.3 million contract for Orbit Fab’s depot as part of its RAPIDS program.

The Space Enterprise Consortium, which exists to reach out to nontraditional contractors and small businesses, awarded a $61 million contract to Astroscale for the refueler satellite.

Space Force and industry officials alike said the demo mission is critical for the future of in-orbit refueling. Lt. Gen. Philip A. Garrant told reporters during a separate media briefing that he’s still not entirely sure the Space Force should go all-in on the idea, given how much it may cost to launch fuel depots or refueling satellites. First, he wants to see how the demonstration goes.

“One of the biggest things that we want to get out of it is to help us flesh out the requirements and [concept of operations] and understand the real feasibility,” Garrant said. “And does it make sense? Is this a good business case? Does it make sense to do that, particularly when you talk about [the cost of] launch, or is it to better spend money on a cheaper satellite that’s just cheaper to replace?”

Unsurprisingly, Orbit Fab doesn’t think so.

“Is refueling less expensive than building and launching a new satellite? In almost all cases, our answer is yes,” Harris said.

Given the Space Force’s limited budget, the question of cost is especially important. The service put just $20 million toward space access, mobility, and logistics in its fiscal 2025 budget, but it has outlined no further plans, and Garrant raised the possibility that new forms of propulsion may eventually mean spacecraft are not as limited by fuel.

Regardless, there is clear interest from operators in being able to maneuver their satellites. U.S. Space Command boss Gen. Stephen N. Whiting said in a keynote speech at the symposium that his command is working with the Space Force’s innovation arm, SpaceWERX, on that demand.

“We will soon be identifying 10 proposals for $1.9 million each in funding over a 15-month period of performance,” Whiting announced. “This effort will continue to invest in the most promising technology from commercial industry to help us solve the sustained space maneuver challenge.”

In the past, Space Force and industry officials have talked about the military’s need for space maneuver so that satellites can dodge attacks by China or Russia and keep performing their mission. Now, they’re adding another operational factor into the calculus.

‘There’s also the proactive side, or offensive side,” said Harris, “Which is, ‘I want to move my spacecraft to a new theater. I’ve gone from this area, and I need to surge to a new place.’ Lots of examples of how that could work, whether it’s communication or missile warning or those type of things.”

“Clearly, if we’re going to have an offensive or defensive capability, it has to be able to maneuver to the target or maneuver to the high-value asset that it’s defending,” added Garrant. “So all of those consume a limited fuel capability. So how do we make it so that we’re not limited by the fuel?”

Astroscale and Orbit Fab aren’t the only firms trying to answer that question. Northrop Grumman has developed its own refueling interfaces, as well as its own tanker spacecraft that will have enough fuel to maneuver between satellites and refuel them.

Last week, Northrop announced it had received contracts of its own from Space Systems Command for a program called Elixir—a satellite bus and refueling payload that can perform rendezvous and proximity operations, which will dock with a Space Force “Tetra-6” satellite spun off from the “Tetra-5” program.

An artist’s rendering of Northrop Grumman’s GAS-T spacecraft. Courtesy of Northrop Grumman.

A spokesperson for Space Systems Command told Air & Space Forces Magazine the demonstration is expected to occur no earlier than 2028.

In a statement, Northrop’s program manager for in-space refueling Lauren Smith touted the company’s demo as a way to “unlock new possibilities for dynamic space operations, providing the sustained maneuverability our customers need in a complex environment.”

Northrop’s model for refueling doesn’t require depots to work, while Orbit Fab and Astroscale’s is meant to be a long-term solution, with its satellites available for operations for years.

In either case, Garrant had a word of caution.

“You could have the best gas tank idea in the world as a satellite provider, but we still have to get you to the orbit of the target of interest,” Garrant said. “And if that’s GEO, that’s a high-energy launch, that’s not an insignificant investment from a launch perspective. So I advise these companies that are looking at abilities to create maneuver without regret, don’t forget to close the business case on launch too.”

With F-15C Gone, Kadena Gets Fresh Rotation of F-15E and F-35 Fighters

April 8, 2025 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

F-35A and F-15E fighter jets touched down at Kadena Air Base in recent days, marking the latest rotation of fighters as the Okinawa base awaits its new permanent F-15EX fleet.

The stealthy F-35s came from the 355th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska; the Strike Eagles came from the 336th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C. They arrived at Kadena from April 3-6, Kadena’s 18th Wing said in a release.

The combination of fourth- and fifth-generation fighters at the strategic U.S. outpost in the western Pacific is aimed at “deterring potential adversaries,” the release added.

“The men and women of the 355th EFS are excited to be back at Kadena Air Base,” said Lt. Col. Erik Gonsalves, commander of the 355th EFS. The squadron was previously assigned to the location in March 2023. “I have spent the majority of my career in PACAF and am looking forward to enhancing our squadron’s proficiency in the asymmetric advantages we share in this AOR.”

A U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II assigned to the 355th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron lands at Kadena Air Base, Japan, April 3, 2025. While deployed to the Keystone of the Pacific, the 355th EFS will work in conjunction with additional heavy, reconnaissance, and fourth and fifth generation fighter assets that are both augmented to and stationed at Kadena to ensure continued steady-state fighter capabilities in the region. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Melany Bermudez

The new fighters are the first to arrive at Kadena since the base’s last original F-15C had its final flight in January—the last operational F-15C flight across the entire Active-Duty Air Force. A few of the aging fighters are still at Kadena, decommissioned as training aids for maintainers.

In the long term, Kadena is set to get 36 F-15EX Eagle IIs to replace 48 F-15C/D Eagles that had defended Japan’s southernmost major island for 45 years.

The 18th Wing is expecting its first batch of the EX fighters to touch down at the base between March and June 2026.

Since the F-15C/D began phasing out in 2022, the Air Force has been rotating fourth- and fifth-gen fighters, including F-15Es, F-16s, F-35s, and F-22s, to supplement Kadena’s airpower. Given that previous deployments of a squadron typically lasted about six months, the F-35As and F-15Es will likely be swapped out for other fighter squadrons later this year.

Col. David Deptula, 18th Operations Group commander, added that these rotations “ensures the continuation of our long-standing mission to defend Japan and maintain an open and free Indo-Pacific.”

A U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II assigned to the 355th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron lands at Kadena Air Base, Japan, April 3, 2025. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Melany Bermudez

The ongoing fighter rotation at Kadena will continue until the base receives all three dozen Eagle IIs and achieves full operational capability, though the timeline remains murky for now.

In previous rotations, once new squadrons arrive, the previously assigned fighters and aircrews returned to their home stations within a few weeks. The most recent shift took place in January, when the Vermont Air National Guard’s F-35s arrived at the Okinawa base.

“We are looking forward to putting our skills and training to the test and taking our mission execution to the next level here on Okinawa,” said Maj. Chris Burson, 336th Fighter Generation Squadron commander. “Kadena is a fantastic opportunity for us—working alongside our mission partners, sharing experiences and techniques, will be invaluable and will ensure we are an effective fighting force in the Indo-Pacific.”

How to Win a War in Space: SPACECOM’s 5 Keys

April 8, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—U.S. Space Command has defined five factors it believes will be key to victory should it ever need to fight a full-fledged war in space, Gen. Stephen N. Whiting said April 8 at the Space Symposium.

The factors, which Whiting called “Elements of Victory,” include efforts U.S. military space leaders have emphasized before, from resilience to a first strike to coordination with commercial and allied partners. But Whiting’s focus on how to prepare to win a conflict marks another step in the Pentagon’s shift to treat space as a warfighting domain in its own right.

Space Force leaders have talked about space as a warfighting domain before. Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman has made space superiority a calling card of his tenure and formulated a theory of “Competitive Endurance” for how the service will seek to manage competition and deter conflict with the likes of China and Russia.

But while the Space Force organizes, trains, and equips forces, Space Command is responsible for actual operations in the domain and thus has to think about and prepare to fight, Whiting said.

“We are a combatant command, and like all other combatant commands, we must be dominant at warfighting and war-winning,” Whiting said. “And dominant warfighting in space requires credible, acknowledged kinetic and nonkinetic capabilities, fires and weapons. Acknowledging this reinforces a distinct space warfighting ethos, ensures that threats are met with the right capabilities, and restores credible deterrence in space.”

The challenge leaders have faced is that there has never been a war in space, so establishing exactly how to win one is still theoretical. The elements Whiting identified “are informed by lessons learned in other domains, from the best thinking across our Joint Force exercises, and modeling and simulation,” he said.

They include:

Operating through a first strike

Transition from crisis to conflict

Synchronize and integrate joint, commercial, allied, and partner capabilities

Sustain and bolster space capabilities beyond initial stages of conflict

Achieve space superiority

For each element, Whiting highlighted SPACECOM’s efforts to build up its capabilities. Dating back to 2024, the command established strategies for experimentation and artificial intelligence, expanded its Commercial Integration Cell and Joint Commercial Office, and worked to field better command-and-control systems.

U.S. Space Force Lt. Col. Bryce Carlson, Space Delta 5 Current Operations Division director, speaks to members from the Australian Space Operations Centre, Canadian Space Operations Centre and United Kingdom National Space Operations Centre, during a 3-day working group in support of Operation Olympic Defender at U.S. Space Forces – Space headquarters on Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., Nov. 4, 2024. U.S. Space Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Luke Kitterman

One of the biggest moves SPACECOM has made to bolster its posture for conflict is to “operationalize” its ties with allies, Whiting said—essentially building the relationships to the point where they would work smoothly if a space war breaks out.

Just recently, he revealed, the U.S. and France “conducted our first ever bilateral rendezvous and proximity operation to demonstrate combined capabilities in space in the vicinity of a strategic competitor spacecraft.”

More broadly, SPACECOM expanded Operation Olympic Defender, a coalition of allies who coordinate their space efforts, share data, and work together to defend against threats.

In 2024 and 2025, Germany, France, and New Zealand joined the operation, alongside the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. At the symposium, Whiting said Olympic Defender has reached initial operational capability with its new roster of allies.

“Together, we’ve conceptualized requirements for our multinational force, we’ve developed the first [Olympic Defender concept of operations], we’ve outlined national contributions … and we’ve created a space domain awareness concept of operations,” Whiting said. “And this week, we’ll sign and publish our first ever [Olympic Defender] campaign plan.”

SPACECOM has also written its own campaign plan, and the Space Force made campaigning in orbit one of the central tenets of its “Competitive Endurance” theory. Whiting said such plans are one of the keys to transition from crises to sustained conflict.

Ultimately, Whiting stressed that the final element—space superiority—is both a necessity to winning a conflict and enabled by the other elements.

“The complexity and expanse of space challenges the notion of having superiority at all times and all places. However, space superiority can be achieved at a time and place of our choosing, to close friendly kill chains and disrupt adversary kill webs,” Whiting said.

In that regard, he and Saltzman appear to be singing from the same sheet of music. At last month’s AFA Warfare Symposium, Saltzman said the Space Force will do “whatever it takes” to achieve space superiority, up to and including destroying adversary satellites, a once verboten concept in military space.

At the Space Symposium, Whiting was just as outspoken, going even beyond previous comments he has made calling for “space fires.”

“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.”

Space Force Went Fast for Its Last GPS Launch. Now It Plans to Go Even Faster

April 8, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

The Space Force is switching up rockets for its next GPS mission—and trying to go faster than ever in preparing the satellite for launch.

Space Systems Command announced April 7 that GPS III Space Vehicle-08 will now launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base, Fla., on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than the end of May. The satellite had previously been assigned to a rocket from United Launch Alliance.

The goal is to take the satellite bus from storage to orbit in around three months, well ahead of the 24 months it can sometimes take the military to pull a satellite from storage, integrate it with the launch vehicle, and go through readiness checks and processing.

“This mission represents an outstanding collaboration across multiple teams and agencies,” Space Force Col. Andrew Menschner, commander of Mission Delta 31, said in a statement. “It highlights our ability to rapidly deploy an additional M-Code-capable satellite and continues to push the boundaries of traditional launch timelines.”

That aggressive timeline—which started in late February or early March—builds on what the Space Force did in December, switching its previous GPS mission from ULA to SpaceX and taking just five months to prep the satellite for launch.

In both cases, the GPS satellites have been ready to go for a few years now but ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur vehicle, assigned for the launches, wasn’t yet certified. Space Force officials, concerned about the satellite constellation’s resilience, decided to fly the missions with SpaceX rockets, which are certified. To do so, they have swapped later GPS missions to fly on ULA rockets.

Vulcan Centaur was certified in late March and is now preparing to conduct multiple launches in 2025. ULA has a backlog to get through, however, and Space Force officials are eager to get more GPS satellites in orbit.

“We have been harping on getting more GPS III satellites on orbit to be able to give us more M-code,” Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Schiess, commander of Space Forces-Space, said in December.

M-code is the jam-resistant GPS signal for military use. While other GPS satellites can transmit M-code, the GPS III spacecraft can take advantage of the full capability, including the ability to beam the signal at target areas.

In addition to more M-code, the Space Force’s push to go fast on these last few GPS satellites fits with its broader goal of “Tactically Responsive Space”—having the ability to put a new satellite in orbit on rapid timelines to respond to crises or contingencies.

The signature part of that effort is a series of “Victus” missions in which the service challenged contractors to build satellites quickly, take it from storage to the launch pad in just a few days, then be prepared to launch on a moment’s notice.

But those missions involve smaller payloads and are not part of the National Security Space Launch program, which requires lower risk and higher assurance that the mission will succeed. The GPS launches are.

Ukraine Flying Its F-16s ‘Every Day’ Against Russia, with More Coming: EUCOM Boss

April 8, 2025 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

Ukrainian Air Force pilots are operating F-16 fighters “every day,” targeting missile threats and striking Russia’s eastern region, the top U.S. general in Europe told lawmakers..

“They fly every day; they’ve defeated large number of cruise missile threats, and they’ve delivered an awful lot of offensive attacks as well, specifically bombing attacks in the east,” Army Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, dual-hatted commander of Supreme Allied Commander Europe and U.S. European Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week.

Cavoli’s testimony comes as the war rages on into its fourth year. The U.S. helped mediate a partial ceasefire last month, in which Russia and Ukraine agreed to halt strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure, but both sides have since accused each other of breaking the deal. Last week, Moscow launched ballistic missile strikes that claimed the lives of more than 20 Ukrainians in the central city of Kryvyi Rih.

Without divulging exact numbers, Cavoli mentioned that the current F-16s operating in Ukraine are “mainly from northern European countries, Netherlands and Denmark.”

The U.S. government greenlit the transfer of the American-made fighters in 2023, and the Netherlands and Denmark began sending the jets last summer, with plans to deliver a total dozens of F-16s between the two of them.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, second from left, and Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte inspect an F-16 on August 20, 2023, at Eindhoven Air Base in the Netherlands. The Netherlands will supply F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, as will Denmark. Office of the President of Ukraine

Belgium and Norway also had initially planned to begin sending their jets last year; Norway is donating six aircraft. Last month, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned that Kyiv had recently received more F-16 fighter aircraft, though he didn’t specify how many or which country sent them. U.S. European Command did not immediately respond to confirm whether any of the Norwegian F-16s have touched down in Ukraine yet.

Meanwhile, Belgium, which plans to send 30 jets, announced in March that deliveries would be delayed until next year, according to the Prime Minister Bart De Wever.

“There are more F-16s prepared to be deployed there,” Cavoli added. “There are more pilots in the training pipeline.”

Last month, the Ukrainian Air Force released an interview with one of its F-16 pilots. The pilot, whose identity was kept confidential for security reasons, disclosed that over 80 percent of the missiles fired by these jets successfully hit their targets, eliminating Russia’s Shahed drones and cruise missiles launched from the air, sea, and land.

The pilot added that the multirole fighters carry out offensive counter-air missions, in addition to conducting multiple ground attack operations “each day” over Russia, and its occupied territories in Ukraine.

That’s a marked progression from last fall, when U.S. Air Forces in Europe commander Gen. James B. Hecker told reporters that Ukraine, still new to the F-16, was taking a cautious approach toward employing its new jets and not putting them towards the riskiest missions.

After gaining nearly 4,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in 2024—seven times the amount gained in 2023—Russian forces now occupies approximately 20 percent of Ukraine. The majority of these advances are concentrated in eastern Donetsk.

However, Cavoli noted that Ukrainian troops have also taken control of the Russian region near the border, pushing back in key areas.

“There is a Ukrainian force that is holding on inside Kursk Oblast, they’ve got quite a bit of terrain,” noted Cavoli, adding that Kyiv is also holding defensive terrain in the Belgorod region, about 90 miles south of Kursk along the border. “The Ukrainians, a couple of weeks ago, pushed a smaller counteroffensive back into Russia [in Belgorod]. We still have a back-and-forth going up in that area.”

According to Cavoli, the Patriot air and missile defense system the U.S. provided Ukraine has been a “success story,” despite his initial apprehension regarding the complex system. The $1 billion defense platform, which includes interceptors, radar, command and control, and other support elements, requires about 90 personnel to operate.

“We train guys for a long time to be able to operate it, and the Ukrainians put their really their best people against it, and took to it like a fish to water,” Cavoli said.

In response to Zelenskyy’s request for additional Patriot systems, Washington agreed to work with Kyiv to explore available options, particularly in Europe.

Cavoli also said that Russia has lost more than 4,000 tanks so far in the war, with an estimated 3,000 tanks, 9,000 armored vehicles, 13,000 artillery systems, and over 400 air defense systems lost in the past year alone. However, Moscow is “on pace to replace them all.”

“They have expanded their capability to produce some things—artillery shells, cruise missiles—tremendously,” warned Cavoli.

Could the Air Force Add More EA-37 Electronic Attack Jets to Its ‘Wish List’?

April 8, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force may need more EA-37B electronic attack aircraft than the 10 it is currently planning to buy, industry officials said April 7, suggesting the service is re-looking at its requirements.

Should the service decide it wants more planes but can’t afford them within its near-term budget, executives from contractors L3Harris and BAE Systems pointed to the Air Force’s annual “wish list” of unfunded priorities as a way to keep production going.

The EA-37 is based on a Gulfstream G550 jet and outfitted with electronic warfare equipment from BAE, while L3Harris is the integrator. The Air Force is buying the jet to replace its aging fleet of 15 EC-130H Compass Call aircraft by reconfiguring the equipment removed from the EC-130s and installing it in the new aircraft.

Originally, the Air Force set a requirement of 12 EA-37s. That figure was later trimmed to 10 because of budget pressures, but a team of L3Harris and BAE officials said studies have shown a need for as many as 20 EA-37Bs. The jet will perform jamming, electronic attack, suppression of enemy air defense and, potentially, management of Collaborative Combat Aircraft.

Doubling the size of the fleet might be ambitious, but officials said “what we have been hearing” from the Air Force and operators “is that 10 is not enough,” said David Harrold, BAE’s vice president and general manager for countermeasures and electromagnetic attack solutions.

There appears to be at least some appetite on Capitol Hill for more of the aircraft. In 2019, lawmakers accelerated the program by providing extra funds to buy two aircraft, and in 2022, some members of Congress supported language in the National Defense Authorization Act that would have included four extra EA-37 jets.

Should that happen, however, the Air Force has little time to waste—any delays in procurement might force a gap in production, adding cost and time to deliveries, said Jason Lambert, L3Harris’ president of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems.

“We’ve looked at a model that said, ‘what would it look like if we had four…ordered in [fiscal year 2027]?’ And that would actually create a bit of a gap for the line,” he said. No new aircraft were requested in the fiscal 2025 budget, and the 2026 request has not been revealed.

“Obviously, we want to keep the line activated and hot,” Lambert added, “so we had an alternate proposal that actually looks at two aircraft going under the Unfunded Priority List, if that were to happen, in ‘26 and then another two in ’27,” he said.

The Air Force Unfunded Priorities List has included new aircraft in the past, though not in the last two years. Budget caps limited the service’s request in 2025, and the funding level for 2026 is unclear, but the Air Force has a host of modernization programs competing for limited resources.

“We’re very cognizant of the priorities and budget challenges that our customers going through,” Lambert said. “So what we’re trying to do is understand their pressure points and offer up … the art of the possible, based on a funding line at this time frame versus another time frame. So we’re trying to give options that don’t cause pain to industry or cause additional challenges for our customers.”

The EA-37B Compass Call II. Image courtesy of BAE Systems

The proposed additional buy takes into account potential foreign interest, including a request from Italy for “a number of these platforms,” Harrold said. The team sees worldwide interest for about 20 additional airplanes beyond the Air Force’s current requirement for 10; many of these potential customers are in the Indo-Pacific region, the executives said.

The G550 is out of production. The Air Force got the last few that were built new; the rest are used aircraft that have been zero-timed through inspections and refurbishment by Gulfstream, in a process that takes about 18 months. The companies could not immediately provide the exact number of new versus used in the Air Force buy.

There are plenty of G550s available for conversion, Lambert said.

“At any point in time, there’s typically 20 to 25” G550 aircraft “that would be potential donor candidates” to host an EA-37B’s systems, mostly from among private owners who are looking to trade up to something larger. Those to be used for the EA-37B are “hand picked” for the program, he said; then have their interiors removed and aperture windows cut in by Gulfstream at its Savannah, Ga., facilities.

Gulfstream will “bring that back to the identical configuration, as if it came off the production line,” he said.

It then reconfigures the airplane with the outer mold line of the EA-37B, with its oversized, bulbous nose and “cheek” arrays and then sends it on to BAE and L3Harris, which install the electronic warfare equipment.

“One thing we have looked at is, the Air Force itself owns other G550s,” Harrold said, “so they could…make a corporate decision to reallocate those aircraft” to become Compass Call IIs.

Given that the EC-130 Compass Call equipment was supposed to be ported to the EA-37B, the team was asked how it could expand production beyond the number of EC-130s available as mission systems donor aircraft.

“We call it the cross-tech program,” Harrold said, and in the process of moving from the EC-130 to the EA-37B, which is a smaller aircraft, “we have gone to a different size, weight and power [and] form factor for this platform.” It has a software-defined radio and an open architecture, and “we’re doing all the kinds of things to reduce LRU [Line Replaceable Units] where possible, and to streamline and maximize COTS [Commercial, Off-the Shelf] where it makes sense, with that swap in mind.” He added that they will “find ways to maximize the hardware and software from a domestic versus an FMS variant where possible, so that we can drive that efficiency.”

The first EA-37B is in test and four more have been delivered, performing training and other preparatory functions, but not yet flying operational missions. The remaining five are to be delivered by 2027. Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., is the operating location for the EA-37B.

Air Force Accepts Long-Awaited First New Radar for Ground Battle Management

April 7, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force accepted its first new TPY-4 radar from Lockheed Martin and will start government-led testing of the system, the contractor announced April 7. It’s the latest in a series of milestones for the service’s ground-based command-and-control enterprise.

The TPY-4, sometimes called the Tippy 4, will replace the AN/TPS-75 radar in the Air Force’s Control and Reporting Centers—a collection of systems it uses for battle management from the ground.

The delivery of the first system comes more than a decade after the Air Force first started work on its Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar program to replace the TPS-75—a contract award to Raytheon in 2014 sparked protests and added years to the project’s development.

More recently, the Air Force selected the Lockheed radar in March 2022. Thus far, the service has announced contracts for 9 radars, but in the long term, it wants to buy 35.

Government and industry officials say the new radar will provide major upgrades over the TPS-75, which has been in service since the 1970s. While the legacy radar is a passive electronically scanned array, the TPY-4 is an active electronically scanned array. It provides 360-degree coverage with the ability to discern smaller, more stealthy objects at distances of up to 300 nautical miles, even in areas with electromagnetic jamming.

Lockheed has also touted the new radar’s portability, a key feature given the Air Force’s plans to disperse teams of Airmen to operate from remote or austere bases as part of its Agile Combat Employment concept. In order for ACE to work, Air Force leaders say they will need theater-level battle management capabilities at the cutting edge, and Lockheed says TPY-4 can be transported by C-130, C-17, rail, truck, or even helicopter.

That will be significant, given that a full Control and Reporting Center unit—which a TPY-4 radar will be part of—currently includes roughly 350 personnel, 170 vehicles, 22 power generators, and can sometimes require up to six C-17s to move.

TPY-4 development has encountered some hiccups, however. The Pentagon inspector general released a report in 2023 finding that the Air Force had not properly used an acquisition pathway meant to rapidly test and field new systems. Then the office of the Director for Operational Test and Evaluation found in its 2024 annual report that delays obtaining Federal Aviation Administration approvals impacted testing, along with “system deficiencies” and production delays causing slips in schedule.

In addition to the TPY-4, the Air Force has moved to beef up its ground-based battle management by procuring Tactical Operations Center-Light kits—extremely mobile battle management systems that can pack up in a single C-130. The service already has more than a dozen TOC-L prototypes for its battle managers to experiment with.

TOC-L and TPY-4 will be all the more crucial as the Air Force faces a transition moment for its airborne battle management fleet—its E-3 AWACS fleet is shrinking, and the new E-7 Wedgetail jet is still several years away.

Col. James Combs, deputy commander of the 552nd Air Control Wing, told Air & Space Forces Magazine last summer that air- and ground-based battle management are meant to complement each other, each providing its own benefits. But he acknowledged that “we’re naturally just going to lean on whatever tools we can to get the mission done.”

Space Force’s New Core Doctrine Emphasizes Warfighting

April 7, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

The Space Force’s new “capstone doctrine” released April 3 prioritizes space superiority and warfighting. It is the first major update of USSF’s five-year-old foundational doctrine.

“Space Force Doctrine Document 1 – The Space Force” manifests Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman’s push for a Space Force that goes beyond enabling other military branches through navigation, timing, intelligence, and communications, to a fighting force capable of defending its assets in space and of putting those of rivals at risk.

“In conflict, space will be a contested environment” Saltzman wrote in a foreword to the document, which reiterates the six “core truths” about spacepower he first outlined last December. “We are the military service dedicated to fighting in [space]. We do not merely provide support functions—we also employ military force to achieve space superiority in order to ensure our freedom of maneuver.”

“Space superiority” has become a watchword for Saltzman’s, who employed the term repeatedly at last month’s AFA Warfare Symposium. The new doctrine document cites the term at least a dozen times. At the conference, he urged his audience to leave with one message: “The Space Force will do whatever it takes to achieve space superiority; and if you take away one request from my remarks, let it be to read Space Force Document 1 as soon as it’s available.”

The new doctrine introduces “space control” as a core function of the Space Force, a concept not mentioned USSF’s 2020 “Space Capstone Publication,” but one Saltzman used repeatedly at the Warfare Symposium. The doctrine defines “space control” as “the activities required to contest and control the space domain.”

“The desired outcome of space control activities is space superiority, a degree of control that allows forces to operate at a time and place of their choosing without prohibitive interference from space or counterspace threats, while also denying the same to an adversary. Space control consists of offensive and defensive actions, referred to as counter-space operations.”

Counter-space operations include offensive actions taken against an adversary, something that U.S. space operators have long held as a taboo topic in open discussions. Saltzman and his Space Force leadership team have increasingly opened the aperture in speaking more openly on such topics and the new publication makes frequent reference to both offensive-space and counter-space capabilities.

The doctrine highlights the Space Force’s other two core functions, as did the 2020 publication : “Global Mission Operations” and “Space Access”—that is, the ability to support operations on Earth using space-based assets and the ability to access and move through space, respectively.

In addition, the new doctrine identifies core competencies—the skills the Space Force needs to perform its core functions—including intelligence, cyber operations, command and control, and space domain awareness.

Saltzman’s theory of “Competitive Endurance,” unveiled a year ago, is also embodied in the new doctrine. It states the Space Force will seek to prevent conflict in space with the likes of China or Russia.

The Space Force’s first doctrine was published in the summer of 2020, soon after the new service was founded and while many details of how it would look and work within the Pentagon were still unsettled.

Five years later, the new doctrine shows just how far the service has come, with an overview of its structures and responsibilities for different members, relationship with other government agencies, and details on how it integrates with other military services and the joint force.

Space Force Awards Up to $13.7 Billion in Launch Contracts

April 5, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

The Space Force awarded three contracts April 4 for rocket launches worth up to $13.68 billion combined—and this time, Blue Origin is in the mix for the business along with longtime incumbents SpaceX and United Launch Alliance.

The National Security Space Launch contracts include 54 critical missions for the military and intelligence community between 2027 and 2032. Under the contracts:

SpaceX wins 28 missions for up to $5.9 billion

ULA wins 19 missions for up to $5.4 billion

Blue Origin wins 7 missions for up to $2.4 billion

The disparity reflects each company’s progress and stature in the launch market at this point: SpaceX is the dominant provider, accounting for the vast majority of U.S. launches in recent years, while ULA, long a leading provider, only recently won certification for its new Vulcan Centaur rocket to provide NSSL launches. Newcomer Blue Origin has so far only executed one launch of its New Glenn rocket, which is not yet certified.

For Blue Origin, winning any launches is a major win. Founded even before SpaceX, being included is a landmark, but Blue Origin must get New Glenn certified before it can actually execute those launches.

Blue Origin’s New Glenn launch vehicle prepared for testing in February 2024. (Blue Origin photo)

Space Force leaders see the contracts as a major milestone approaching their vision to ensure more competition in the launch market and to avoid becoming overly reliant on a single vendor or vehicle. Until ULA’s Vulcan Centaur was certified last week, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets were the only active launch vehicles cleared for NSSL missions.

“A robust and resilient space launch architecture is the foundation of both our economic prosperity and our national security,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said in a statement. “National Security Space Launch isn’t just a program; it’s a strategic necessity that delivers the critical space capabilities our warfighters depend on to fight and win.”

To encourage competition, the Space Force took a “dual lane” approach for this most recent round of NSSL launches, dubbed Phase 3. In Lane 1 are missions that can tolerate more risk, allowing less proven launch companies to compete for them. In Lane 2 are the most critical, the ones awarded April 5.

Blue Origin, ULA, and SpaceX are all in Lane 1, but they have more competition in the form of newly approved companies Rocket Lab and Stoke Space, both of which have yet to actually launch their rockets for the program.

Lane 2 remains the bigger and more valuable prize for contractors—in addition to having more companies competing, Lane 1 has approximately 30 missions worth up to $5.6 billion.

A United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket lifts off at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., in October, marking the second certification mission required for certification by the Space Force. (U.S. Space Force photo by Airman 1st Class Collin Wesson)

The government’s launch appetite continues to grow. NSSL phase 2 contracts from 2020 to 2024 encompassed about 34 launches, but as the Space Force and National Reconnaissance Office increase their satellite systems on orbit, the rate of launches and the number of satellites per launch will continue to multiply.