The US Space Force

Time for Space Force to ‘clearly say’ it needs ‘weapons in space’: SPACECOM head​

SDA opens contest for 54 ‘Tranche 3’ missile tracking satellites​


www.defensenews.com

Space Command using experimentation to field high-need capabilities

The command recently produced its first-ever strategies for experimentation and AI and machine learning, Gen. Stephen Whiting said Tuesday.
www.defensenews.com www.defensenews.com

www.airandspaceforces.com

Space Force Satellite Refueling Demos Coming in 2026 and 2028

The Space Force will have its first satellite refueling demo ever in 2026 and another in 2028, but after that remains unclear.
www.airandspaceforces.com www.airandspaceforces.com

www.airandspaceforces.com

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

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.
www.airandspaceforces.com www.airandspaceforces.com

www.airandspaceforces.com

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

U.S. Space Command has defined five keys to victory should it ever need to fight a full-fledged war in space, Gen. Stephen N. Whiting said.
www.airandspaceforces.com www.airandspaceforces.com

breakingdefense.com

Space Force picks up pace of on-orbit refueling experiments - Breaking Defense

Space Systems Command is moving out with a trio of projects — contracting with Northrop Grumman for two separate experiments, and with Astroscale US for the first on-orbit refueling operation involving a military satellite.
breakingdefense.com breakingdefense.com
 
Last edited:
Forest Green said:
Time for Space Force to ‘clearly say’ it needs ‘weapons in space’: SPACECOM head
Click to expand...
I suspect that it would be a rather long period, when space-to-space missiles would be claimed to be "maneuverable sattelite inspectors" (and it would generally be the truth... because inspector vehicle capable of precisely closing with other satellite would also be able to ram it)
 
Dilandu said:
I suspect that it would be a rather long period, when space-to-space missiles would be claimed to be "maneuverable sattelite inspectors" (and it would generally be the truth... because inspector vehicle capable of precisely closing with other satellite would also be able to ram it)
Click to expand...
If a spacecraft is capable of closely examining another, "ramming" wouldn't even be needed. A can of black spray paint will do the job.
 
www.defensenews.com

Space Force commercial office eyes pilot for quick-reaction launches

The Commercial Space Office plans to start a pilot by this fall with a tabletop exercise.
www.defensenews.com www.defensenews.com

breakingdefense.com

Latest DoD IG report clears a hurdle for SPACECOM move to Alabama - Breaking Defense

Following the release of the report today, Alabama politicians began touting the new OIG report as justifying a Trump move to reverse Biden's basing decision.
breakingdefense.com breakingdefense.com

www.defensenews.com

Space Force ramps up UK partnership with civilian exchange program

The program will enable civilian professionals to learn new skills through hands-on experience at each ally organization, the U.S. Space Force said.
www.defensenews.com www.defensenews.com

www.defensenews.com

Space Force ‘Meadowlands’ jammer ready for formal testing

The system uses radio signals to jam enemy communications and Meadowlands brings an expanded frequency range, which improves its ability to interfere.
www.defensenews.com www.defensenews.com

The Space Force is ready to start government testing of a ground-based satellite jammer upgrade that it hopes will make the system more mobile, user friendly and effective as an electronic warfare platform.

L3Harris, which built the baseline Counter Communications System, or CCS, announced April 8 that the upgraded capability passed a recent verification review, which means it is ready to transition to the Space Force for developmental and operational testing.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
breakingdefense.com

Space Force's rapid-launch Victus sats to push both acquisition and operational boundaries - Breaking Defense

While the current focus on the TacRS program is space domain awareness, Col. Bryon McClain, SSC's head of Space Domain Awareness and Combat Power, said other sorts of operational missions might be undertaken in the future.
breakingdefense.com breakingdefense.com

www.defensenews.com

New Space Force ‘warfighting framework’ sharpens weaponization plans

The framework’s primary function is to define key terms, concepts and processes so that guardians have a common lexicon.
www.defensenews.com www.defensenews.com
 
Last edited:
breakingdefense.com

NGA field testing new processor to speed imagery to US regional commands - Breaking Defense

"COCOMs reported after these tests that J-REN and SlimGIMS not only met the capability gap, but also reduced the time to create a collection request from an hour to 5 minutes," an NGA spokesperson told Breaking Defense.
breakingdefense.com breakingdefense.com
"COCOMs reported after these tests that J-REN and SlimGIMS not only met the capability gap, but also reduced the time to create a collection request from an hour to 5 minutes," an NGA spokesperson told Breaking Defense.
Click to expand...
 
www.spacewar.com

Space Systems Command and NRO launch Phase 3 mission under new contract

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 23, 2025 - The U.S. Space Force's Space Systems Command (SSC), in collaboration with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), has successfully completed the launch of the NROL-145 mission aboard a SpaceX Falc
www.spacewar.com

www.spacewar.com

HRL and Boeing advance quantum satellite communications milestone

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 22, 2025 - HRL Laboratories, in collaboration with Boeing, has reached a critical achievement in the Q4S satellite mission by finalizing and validating a quantum communications payload designed for space deplo
www.spacewar.com

www.airandspaceforces.com

New Doc Spells Out How USSF Will Use Space Control to Gain Space Superiority | Air & Space Forces Magazine

A new document released by the Space Force gives a framework for how to fight in space in terms familiar to military planners.
www.airandspaceforces.com www.airandspaceforces.com
 
Last edited:
It’s interesting that not only was Phase 3 used for the April 20th launch, that was the second NRO proliferated architecture launch for that month and the 9th dedicated launch overall since last May. By my tally, that is 178 satellites - dedicated launches of 21 (4), 22 (3), 17, and 11. Two more apparently went up with a batch of Starlink sats last November (possibly experimental) for a total of 180 known objects inside a one year period.

That is a rather stunning increase in recon density. We do not know payloads and exact orbits, but there must be a dramatic decrease in revisit times coming (not all sats are in final orbits) associated with that many platforms. And we have no idea when this launch cadence will pause either - this could be the new normal.
 
www.airandspaceforces.com

SDA Hires an Integrator to Keep Its Next Satellite Tranche on Schedule

The Space Development Agency awarded a $55 million contract to SAIC to help SDA coordinate and review development on Tranche 3.
www.airandspaceforces.com www.airandspaceforces.com

www.airandspaceforces.com

Space Force Accepts New Weather Satellite, to Add Commercial

The Space Force is ready to start using its newest weather satellite after finishing testing and achieving initial operational capability.
www.airandspaceforces.com www.airandspaceforces.com

www.defensenews.com

Space Force weather satellite deemed ready for forecasts

The service is crafting a plan to replace its legacy weather capability, and WSF-M and its companion EWS program are a bridge to that architecture.
www.defensenews.com www.defensenews.com
 
Do I read right?!

  • Standoff strike, or space- or terrestrial-based long-range fires that can attack without needing to get close to the target
Click to expand...

Terrestrial being off-world based counter fire?!! :D

Source (as linked above by @Forest Green ):
www.airandspaceforces.com

New Doc Spells Out How USSF Will Use Space Control to Gain Space Superiority | Air & Space Forces Magazine

A new document released by the Space Force gives a framework for how to fight in space in terms familiar to military planners.
www.airandspaceforces.com www.airandspaceforces.com

I am surprised however to see that space beamed energy or rocket cargo supply is not one of their listed priority.
 
Last edited:
TomcatViP said:
Do I read right?!



Terrestrial being off-world based counter fire?!! :D
Click to expand...
Terrestrial is Earth-based, but the fact it is preceded with 'space- or' seems to indicate orbitally-based counter-fire.

The Space Force does not yet have the ability to perform all the operations it lists—the framework mentions hitting terrestrial targets with space-based fires
Click to expand...
 
Sferrin said:
Just throw a couple of these on it. View attachment 768135
Click to expand...
A load with one large tungsten ball and a bit of tungsten birdshot would seem to cover the bases. Alternating with high explosive bolter rounds, perhaps...

The satellite could include the upper torso of an evolved Optimus android to both aim and reload.
 
bg,f8f8f8-flat,750x,075,f-pad,750x1000,f8f8f8.jpg


Rubber chicken?!
 
breakingdefense.com

Space Force eyeing international launch sites to increase 'resilience' - Breaking Defense

While not necessarily a near-term possibility, Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen said the Space Force is "looking at increasing the resiliency, increasing the ways that we have to get assured access to space, that's where the these initial discussions with our international partners are coming in."
breakingdefense.com breakingdefense.com

www.airandspaceforces.com

Space Force Wants More Rapid, Flexible Launch

The Space Force launch enterprise is embracing rapid launch to get satellites into orbit fast as a new way of doing business, officials say.
www.airandspaceforces.com www.airandspaceforces.com
 
Last edited:

NORAD Commander: AMTI Prototype Sensors Are On Orbit ‘Now’ | Aviation Week Network

The U.S. military is currently testing sensors that can be used to track moving aerial targets from space, says Gen. Gregory Guillot.
aviationweek.com aviationweek.com

Building on DoD demos, NOVI plans dual-use imagery constellation - Breaking Defense

Both the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Missile Defense Agency are now testing NOVI's satellite sensor data processing computer and AI-powered software on orbit.
breakingdefense.com breakingdefense.com

www.airandspaceforces.com

Deterring Chinese Attacks in Space Could Be Tough, Report Says

A new report says that unclear policies and a zero-sum security outlook make it difficult to deter Chinese attacks on U.S. space assets.
www.airandspaceforces.com www.airandspaceforces.com
 
Last edited:
Axient joins Space Force STEP 20 initiative to drive next generation orbital tech techhttps://www.spacewar.com/reports/Axient_joins_Space_Force_STEP_20_initiative_to_drive_next_generation_orbital_tech_999.html

STEP 2.0 is a multi-award, Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract managed by the Department of Defense's Space Test Program under Space Systems Command. The program will facilitate rapid integration of experimental payloads into modular satellite platforms, enabling low-cost, agile testing of new space technologies in orbit.
Click to expand...
 
WASHINGTON — The Space Force hopes to soon be able provide new orbital warfare capability to operators through integrating the modern phased-array antennas being developed under its Satellite Communications Augmentation Resource (SCAR) program with its R2C2 satellite command and control software, according to senior program officials.
breakingdefense.com

'Bunch of SCARS': Space Force's Hammett speeds phased array antenna integration - Breaking Defense

"[T]his capability is so important to where we're headed in the next couple of years, with having the capacity to make the SCN [Satellite Control Network] stand up to all the new systems that are coming and all the new mission requirements that they're going to have," Hammett told Breaking Defense.
breakingdefense.com breakingdefense.com
 
A Department of Defense weather satellite program that collects vital information for hurricane forecasts will stop distributing data products to users Monday.

The termination of data products from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program could lead to dangerous declines in the quality of hurricane forecasts, meteorologists say. That’s especially worrying, they say, as the termination comes in the middle of this year’s hurricane season.

“There is no sugar-coating it: hurricane forecasts will undoubtedly be worse after this loss,” said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane expert at the University of Miami, in an email to POLITICO’s E&E News. “For anyone near a hurricane-prone area, this is alarmingly bad news.”
Click to expand...
Now, experts are worried that the loss of DMSP data will hamstring their models this hurricane season. DMSP accounts for as much as half of the microwave scans that help forecasters build their predictions.

“There is critical information that we can get from these satellites that we cannot get from more traditional visible or infrared satellites,” said scientist Philip Klotzbach, who leads Colorado State University’s annual Atlantic hurricane forecasts, adding that the announcement was “certainly a surprise to me.”

McNoldy, of the University of Miami, said that his “gut reaction was disbelief” when he heard the news.

“Microwave data are already relatively sparse, so any loss — even gradual as satellites or instruments fail — is a big deal; but to abruptly end three active functioning satellites is insanity,” he added in an email.
Click to expand...
Other scientists expressed fears about the dangers to human life.

Posting on Bluesky early Thursday morning, hurricane researcher Jimmy Yunge shared a message he wrote to NOAA’s Office of Satellite and Product Operations expressing his alarm.

“This decision will kill people,” he wrote. “I seriously urge all of those involved to reverse this policy, and call on those who have any amount of leverage in the upper administration to push back at any and every level under moral and practical grounds.”
Click to expand...
www.eenews.net

Trump terminates satellite data considered crucial to storm forecasting

Meteorologists called the end of the DOD program "insanity" and "alarmingly bad news" as the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season ramps up.
www.eenews.net www.eenews.net
 
See what I mean about this sense of 'parting out for fire sale to private equity' in the NASA budget cuts thread?
 
dannydale said:
See what I mean about this sense of 'parting out for fire sale to private equity' in the NASA budget cuts thread?
Click to expand...
No.
A. Has nothing to do with NASA.
b. the satellites are being turned off and not being sold or handed over to anybody.
 
So are there replacement satellites in the pipeline?

I also never said anything about the satellite data being terminated having anything to do with NASA budget cuts. However I applaud your astute inference that there could be *something* of a common cause. ;)
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom