Air Force Secretary doubles down on space-based radar bet amid key aircraft losses in Iran
E-3 radar planes have been targeted in Epic Fury. Its replacement isn’t getting more funding.
Thomas Novelly | April 15, 2026 09:35 PM ET
Air Force Space Force Space Iran
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Air Force officials are pursuing a space-based system to detect airborne threats and pushing off additional funding for battlespace awareness aircraft in the 2027 budget, even as the service’s fleet of radar planes is in Iran’s sights.
A base contract has been awarded for a new space-based airborne moving target communication capability, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said Wednesday during his keynote address to the Space Symposium here. During a follow-up roundtable with reporters, the service leader said they’ve selected a pool of vendors and are progressing towards the first award. While he didn’t provide a specific timeline, Meink said it could be sooner than anticipated.
“We expect that system to field very rapidly,” Meink said. “These are programs that are ready to execute and ready to execute rapidly, to be honest, as soon as the money is fed down to the system.”
Meink’s support is backed by roughly $7 billion in funding for space-based Air Moving Target Indicator, or AMTI, satellites in the latest 2027 budget request. By comparison, the service’s E-7 Wedgetail radar plane was, once again, not funded. Yet military and defense experts told Defense One that the capability is seen as crucial to upgrade battlespace awareness in chaotic combat zones and there is an immediate need for it in conflict.
https://www.defenseone.com/defense-systems/2026/04/air-force-secretary-doubles-down-space-based-radar-bet-amid-key-aircraft-losses-iran/412887/?oref=d1-featured-river-secondary
