By Sandra Erwin
Welcome to this week's edition of SpaceNews' Military Space, your source for the latest developments at the intersection of space and national security. In this week's edition: Military strategy drives new satellite designs, Golden Dome cost challenges and the Pentagon urges the space industry to expand capacity.
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Military strategy drives new satellite designs
Satellite manufacturers are responding to the military’s call for “maneuverable” spacecraft and for spacecraft that can be produced in short timelines. Some of these new concepts were unveiled by Space Force leaders at last week’s Space Symposium.
These new satellite designs are aimed squarely at U.S. and allied defense customers, reflecting a demand for systems built to operate in a space environment where satellites may be targeted or disrupted.
BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin said they made internal investments in satellites capable of rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO), on-orbit coordination and dynamic tasking. These technologies are aligned with a growing military emphasis on “space control” and resilient architectures.
BAE introduced its Ascent platform, a roughly 2,200-kilogram spacecraft designed to be refuelable and support roles such as in-space transportation and payload deployment. The company is targeting a 2027 pathfinder mission for a classified customer.
Lockheed Martin’s new line, called Next-Generation Space Dominance, includes the NGSD Vanguard smallsat and NGSD Sentinel, a larger refuelable system. Planned demonstrations as early as 2028–2029 will focus on RPO and onboard command-and-control functions, including real-time coordination across satellite networks.
Shift in satellite design
Much of today’s military fleet prioritizes longevity and predictable orbits, but defense officials view those attributes as constraints as China and Russia continue to develop counterspace capabilities.
That same logic is shaping offerings beyond the U.S. primes. Canada’s MDA Space introduced a maneuverable “space control” satellite, Midnight, focused on inspection, threat detection and on-orbit intervention. The system is also designed to support dual-use missions such as satellite servicing, repositioning and de-orbiting.
At the same time, Boeing is positioning its satellite business to compete with newer entrants promising faster delivery and lower costs. Working more closely with subsidiary Millennium Space Systems, the company is developing a mid-sized “micro GEO” platform, Resolute, aimed at bridging the gap between small satellites and traditional large geostationary systems.
The platform targets a growing market for lower-cost, faster-to-deploy GEO-class capabilities, particularly among countries seeking sovereign communications and sensing infrastructure without the expense of legacy systems.
Military advantages
Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force, said maneuvering spacecraft can give the military an advantage but also introduce new challenges. “Obviously maneuverable forces are far more resilient and dependable,” he told reporters.
But when adversaries also use maneuvering spacecraft, “now it's just one more complication that I have to account for with space domain awareness,” he said. “There's always a kind of a two-edged sword on this kind of thing. But I certainly can't sit back and say, ‘I don't want to maneuver,’ because then that might make the adversary want to maneuver … And we'll have to account for it on both sides, as a utility and as a threat, potentially.”
Gen. Stephen Whiting, head of U.S. Space Command, was more direct, calling maneuverable satellites a “necessity” as rivals demonstrate new ways to operate and sustain spacecraft in orbit. “The necessity of maneuver in space has intensified over the past year, as we’ve watched China demonstrate their orbital refueling and logistics prowess,” Whiting said. “Movement and maneuver is a joint function and maneuver is a principle of war.”
For now, much of this remains in the testing phase. Demonstration timelines suggest a transition to more maneuver-centric satellite architectures is beginning, but still far from being fielded at scale.
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Pentagon urges space industry to expand capacity
At last week’s Space Symposium, U.S. defense officials delivered a coordinated message to satellite manufacturers and launch providers: prepare now for a surge in demand that may come if the Trump administration’s fiscal 2027 defense budget is approved.
The U.S. Space Force is poised to receive its largest funding increase since its creation, with a proposed budget of over $71 billion, up from roughly $40 billion in 2026. That scale of growth is forcing a more immediate question: whether the government and its suppliers can spend and absorb the money fast enough to field systems.
“This is the moment when our nation’s Space Force comes of age,” Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said. “Now we have to execute, execute, execute,” he said. “Going forward, we owe it to the taxpayers and our future generations to effectively execute every dollar of that increase, and it will be a big challenge.”
Concerns about industrial throughput
If Congress signs off on the increase, the Pentagon will need companies to accelerate production of satellites, payloads and ground systems that support missile warning, communications and data transport networks.
These developments have exposed a familiar tension in defense procurement. Government officials say existing capacity is not sufficient to meet the volume and speed of planned acquisitions. Industry, meanwhile, remains cautious about committing capital without firm contracts that justify expanding factories, supply chains and hiring.
Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, who leads the Space Systems Command, said companies have been asking for clearer signals on future demand. “The desire for a stronger and clearer demand signal” is a consistent theme in industry feedback, he said.
That signal is here, Garrant said, pointing to the budget proposal. “It's loud, consistent and unmistakable from every level of our nation's leadership.”
He framed the moment as a turning point for both sides. “We are ready to award and execute at speeds that have never been seen before, but that would be for naught if we aren't able to produce and deliver at speed and scale,” he said, noting that nearly half of the proposed Space Force budget would be executed through his command.
Expand ahead of contracts
"We're not just asking you to bid on our programs. We're asking you to make strategic decisions, to invest in our shared interests, in the national security of our future. Invest in your factories, expand your production lines, upgrade your tooling,” he said. “If your current capacity is 10 satellites, what we want is a capacity that exceeds 40 satellites.”
Still, he acknowledged the financial risk. “What we're asking isn't easy,” Garrant said. “It requires significant investments and a fundamental change. The demand signal is real and it's coming fast … We are postured to award new contracts and leverage existing contracts at all levels that we have not seen before.”
The result is what officials and executives describe as a feedback loop. Without new capacity, the Pentagon’s push to deploy space capabilities more quickly could stall. Without contracts, companies are reluctant to build that capacity. Garrant put it more bluntly: “Industry says ‘show me the money,’” he said. “We have to get the contracts awarded quickly.”
In parallel, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman released the Future Operating Environment 2040 and Objective Force 2040 documents, which outline how the service expects space operations and force structure to evolve. Officials describe the pair as a forward-looking demand signal intended to help industry align technology development with anticipated needs.
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Golden Dome chief warns cost will decide fate of space interceptors
The head of the Pentagon’s Golden Dome missile defense project is again signaling that cost, not technology, may be the decisive factor in shaping the program.
At a House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee hearing last week, Gen. Michael Guetlein returned to what he has repeatedly described as the core issue in missile defense: the economics.
The problem is straightforward. Interceptors cost millions of dollars each, while the missiles or drones they are designed to defeat are often far cheaper. That imbalance allows an adversary to impose costs simply by launching more weapons, potentially exhausting a system’s “magazine depth,” or the number of interceptors available.
For Golden Dome, which aims to defend the entire U.S. homeland against large-scale, complex attacks, that mismatch becomes more acute. A system that cannot afford to intercept a large volume of incoming threats risks being overwhelmed.
Space interceptors not a given
In an exchange with Rep. Jeff Crank (R-Colo.), Guetlein said it remains an open question whether space-based interceptors will be part of the final system.
Although they were identified in President Donald Trump’s executive order as a technology to pursue, Guetlein said affordability will ultimately determine whether they move forward.
He told lawmakers that while the technology is advancing, the Pentagon will only proceed if it can be produced at scale and at a cost that supports sustained operations. If boost-phase intercept from space proves too expensive or difficult to scale, the department will rely on other layers in the system rather than commit to a costly approach.
“Because we are so focused on affordability, if we cannot do it affordably, we will not go into production,” Guetlein said.
Trying to flip the cost equation
Guetlein said his office is working to reverse the cost imbalance by lowering the “cost per kill” and expanding production capacity.
“And we're doing that through partnerships with industry, partnerships with academia and partnerships with the national labs,” he said.
Boost-phase intercept, or striking a missile shortly after launch, is among the most technically demanding elements of Golden Dome. It requires rapid detection and decision-making within a narrow window.
“Boost phase intercept is a particularly challenging aspect, of course, of Golden Dome as it requires much shorter decision timelines for the war fighters,” Guetlein said. He described the effort as an “incredible challenge that can be incredibly difficult. However, I do believe that the technology exists to get after that threat today, and we believe we can solve it.”
The remaining question is whether that capability can be delivered at scale and at a price point that makes it viable for homeland defense.
If space-based interceptors do not meet those thresholds, the Pentagon has alternatives, including interceptors deployed from ground-based silos or naval platforms. “So if boost phase intercept from space is not affordable and scalable, we will not produce it because we have other options to get after it,” he said.
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