09/15/2026

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Meink says U.S. has space-control weapons on orbit

U.S. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink on Monday revealed that the United States has deployed space-control weapons in orbit. He also disclosed new milestones for military satellite programs tied to missile defense and long-range targeting.

“The United States now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action,” Meink said in remarks at the Air & Space Force Association’s Air, Space & Cyber conference.

The statement was unusually explicit even though the Pentagon has repeatedly said the U.S. needs weapons to defend satellites and counter adversary space capabilities.

Asked afterward by AFA President Burt Field to discuss further details of U.S. space weapons already on orbit, Meink declined to elaborate.

“That phrase was very well thought out,” Meink said. “So whatever I said before is what I say again.” He said U.S. forces rely heavily on space-based sensing and command-and-control systems and that potential adversaries have developed capabilities intended to threaten them.

Meink also disclosed that the Space Force plans to begin launching satellites this month for its space-based Air Moving Target Indication, or AMTI, constellation, designed to help track aircraft and other moving targets from orbit.

“We are launching our AMTI, or our air moving target indication constellation this month,” Meink said.

Meink also said the Space Force’s space-based interceptor program, a central element of the Pentagon’s planned Golden Dome missile defense architecture, had moved from an initial contract to “flight-ready hardware” in less than a year.

New space leaders face a test: turning billions into capability

A changing of the guard across the U.S. national security space establishment has put new leaders atop the Space Force, military space acquisition and the nation’s spy satellite agency as Washington pours billions of dollars into new capabilities in orbit.

Gen. Douglas Schiess is the new chief of space operations. Erich “HB” Hernandez-Baquero has taken over as the Air Force’s top civilian official for space acquisition, while Roger Mason is leading the National Reconnaissance Office.

They arrive at a consequential moment for military space. The Trump administration has proposed $71.3 billion for the Space Force in fiscal 2027, more than doubling its fiscal 2026 budget if Congress approves the full amount. The service is also reorganizing how it buys satellites and other systems, while the Pentagon and intelligence community are relying more heavily on commercial space companies.

The question now is whether the new leadership can turn that money and organizational change into capabilities that military commanders can actually use.

For Schiess, that means taking over a service that has spent much of its short history defining its role and must now demonstrate that its forces and weapons are ready for combat.

Retired Lt. Gen. John Shaw, a former deputy commander of U.S. Space Command, said Schiess will have to translate warfighting needs into requirements that the acquisition system can act on.

Hernandez-Baquero faces an execution problem. The Space Force recently replaced much of its traditional acquisition structure with nine Portfolio Acquisition Executives, giving senior officials responsibility for broad mission areas rather than individual programs. The idea is to give them more freedom to shift resources and solve problems across an entire architecture.

Whether that works will depend partly on whether those executives actually exercise their new authority and whether the service has enough experienced contracting officers, engineers and program managers to support them.

Mason, meanwhile, takes over the NRO as the intelligence agency deepens its relationship with the Space Force.

What industry is watching

The leadership turnover comes as commercial space companies are putting more of their own capital behind technologies aimed at military and intelligence customers.

The Pentagon has opened more doors through Other Transaction Authority agreements, large multiple-award contracts and vendor pools. But getting onto one of those vehicles does not guarantee business.

Companies “want to see vision, consistency and confirmed long-term contracts,” Shaw said. “They want a commitment from the government so they can make commitments themselves.”

Pentagon reports put price tag on Space Force’s biggest satellite bets

Newly released Pentagon acquisition reports shed new light on the cost and progress of three of the Space Force’s largest satellite programs.

These reports cover the Evolved Strategic Satellite Communications program, or ESS, and the geosynchronous and polar components of Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared, or Next-Gen OPI. Together, they offer a snapshot of more than $20 billion in planned acquisition spending.

The Modernized Selected Acquisition Reports, or MSARs, provide assessments of major weapons programs against their approved cost and schedule baselines.

Strategic satcom mission

The ESS communications system is being developed to take over the strategic mission now performed by the Advanced Extremely High Frequency constellation, providing secure and survivable links for the president, senior defense officials and U.S. strategic forces, including coverage of the Arctic.

Boeing won a $2.8 billion cost-plus contract in July 2025 for the first two spacecraft. The new report puts the full ESS space acquisition at seven satellites and $11.58 billion in then-year dollars, including $7.2 billion in research and development and $4.38 billion in procurement. The plan calls for two development satellites and five procurement spacecraft.

The report warns that requirements changes could increase costs and delay completion of the design. It says the Space Force is discussing ESS capabilities and resource requirements with unidentified international partners, potentially leading to cooperative agreements. The satellite design itself won’t be changed to accommodate foreign requirements but ESS could potentially support allies.

Missile warning satellites

Next-Gen OPIR GEO and Polar reflect the traditional approach to strategic missile warning: a small number of highly specialized satellites built for demanding missions in high-altitude orbits.

These programs are moving forward as the Pentagon pivots toward proliferated constellations in low and medium Earth orbit, where capabilities can be distributed across more spacecraft and refreshed more frequently.

Lockheed Martin’s Next-Gen OPIR GEO program consists of two large geosynchronous missile-warning satellites designed to detect and report intercontinental and tactical ballistic missile launches. Its current acquisition estimate is about $8.54 billion for two spacecraft.

The first satellite is targeted for launch no earlier than October 2026. That date has already moved several times. The latest shift cited in the report resulted from anomaly investigations involving United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket, rather than a problem with the spacecraft. The second satellite is in integration and testing.

The GEO program was once expected to include three spacecraft. The third was removed from the baseline, and the report says it is no longer an option on Lockheed’s contract. The Northrop Grumman-built infrared mission payload was instead transferred to the Next-Gen OPIR Polar program, a move the Space Force says saved the two programs a combined $350 million.

Now the Pentagon wants to terminate Polar.

Northrop Grumman is building two Next-Gen OPIR Polar satellites for highly elliptical orbits, providing missile-warning coverage over northern latitudes that are difficult to observe continuously from geosynchronous orbit.

Northrop received a contract in October 2024 to build, integrate, test and launch both spacecraft, and program costs so far have reached $3.2 billion.

Congress is pushing back against the administration’s effort to end it and inserted language in the 2027 defense bill that requires the Air Force to continue the program.

For industry, the takeaway is not that large satellites are disappearing but that the Pentagon is becoming more selective about where it wants them.

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