Missile Defense Agency’s long-range radar tracks ICBM test target for first time
The test, dubbed Flight Test Other-26 (FTX-26), was originally planned for fiscal 2022, and again in 2023.
The test, dubbed Flight Test Other-26 (FTX-26), was originally planned for fiscal 2022, and again in 2023.
Space-based capabilities could put current aerial tracking platforms in question, but top military brass have argued for options "from whatever domain or platform or system that comes [in]."
Michigan’s defense ecosystem and expertise makes it a special asset for production.
“Almost all the systems that we use for homeland defense rely on that part of the spectrum that's being considered to be either sold or shared,” Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of US Northern Command, said.
“You can't defeat what you can't see, and the adversaries have an increasing capability of reaching us and threatening us from ranges beyond what some of our current systems can detect and track," said Gen. Gregory Guillot, who leads US Northern Command.
The satellites carry a handful of different payloads, including the two US Space Force Enhanced Polar System-Recapitalization jam-resistant communication payloads, an X-band communications payload for Norway's Ministry of Defence, and a Ka-band payload for commercial firm Viasat.
Gen. Gregory Guillot told the annual SMD Symposium that he also believes the US military needs to increase its effort to field directed-energy weapons to counter not only uncrewed aircraft systems but also cruise and hypersonic missiles.
"The LRDR completed a Space Domain Awareness (SDA) data collect event in January 2024 that proved the SDA capability, and the U.S. Space Force and MDA are in the process of formally declaring LRDR ready for SDA early use in April 2024," according to MDA Director Lt. Gen. Heath Collins.
US Indo-Pacific Command’s $11 billion unfunded priority list includes 44 programs, from missiles to maritime mines.
China is conducting regional maritime activities "under the cloud of a technical or scientific research, but we think it's certainly multi-mission to include military" operations, Gen. Gregory Guillot, head of NORTHCOM/NORAD said.
There's a whole lotta shakin' goin' on in space, from Geneva to Washington to Colorado Springs to Los Angeles.
"The best missile strategy is to destroy the missiles prior to launch. A focus on missile defeat could enable distributed non-kinetic systems with larger magazines and the ability to engage missiles before they can deploy complex decoys, countermeasures, maneuvers or multiple reentry vehicles," said Rear Adm. Sean Regan, NORTHCOM's director of operations.
Russia since this spring has been using both newly minted cruise missiles and even hypersonic missiles in its war to annex Ukraine.
"I think the future of homeland defense looks vastly different than it does today," NORTHCOM/NORAD Commander Gen. Glen VanHerck said Thursday.
After what Gen. Glen VanHerck called a "totally deceiving and incorrect" SPACECOM statement, there was widespread confusion about who is charged with the missile defense mission.