Space Force testing space-based sensors to track airborne targets
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]."
By Theresa Hitchens and Michael Marrow
on May 15, 2025 at 4:08 PM
WASHINGTON — The Space Force is collaborating with the Air Force and US Northern Command to demonstrate space-based sensors for tracking airborne targets, with an eye to seeing if that capability could work with Air Moving Target Indicator (AMTI) systems currently carried by crewed aircraft, a senior Space Force official said today.
“There are some demonstration activities going on. That is about as much as I’d say right now,” Lt. Gen. Shawn Bratton, service deputy for strategy, plans, programs and requirements, told the Mitchell Institute today.
“We’re waiting to kind of gather data and understand: ‘Hey, how good is this capability from space? How is it … compatible with the existing AMTI capabilities that the Navy and the Air Force fly?’ We think there are kinda synergies of having both flavors of this capability right now, but we’re really waiting for some … engineering data to understand what we can see from space, and how good is that going to be,” he said.
https://breakingdefense.com/2025/05/space-force-testing-space-based-sensors-to-track-airborne-targets/
