Space Force Zeroes in on Targeting from Orbit, but Timeline Unclear

The Space Force will finish an analysis of alternatives for how to do airborne moving target indication from orbit this fall, said Lt. Gen. Deanna M. Burt, USSF’s deputy chief for operations, cyber, and nuclear.

Burt said it will take time to develop the needed technologies to execute targeting effectively from space. “We are working with the variety of commercial entities and industry partners on, ‘What are the different phenomenologies that would allow us to [accomplish] air moving target indicators?’” Burt said Aug. 4 during an event with AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. 

An analysis of alternatives for air moving target indication is “supposed to deliver this fall,” Burt said. Pentagon officials want to leverage space for both ground and airborne moving target indication, and even zeroed out the E-7 Wedgetail airborne battle management and targeting platform in the proposed 2026 budget, rather than complete the planned purchase to replace aging E-3 AWACS jets. 

But others have pushed back on that plan. Nearly 20 former general officers signed a letter urging Congress to restore funding for the Wedgetail program, arguing that space-based targeting is not ready for prime time.  

“Maybe we will one day, but the challenges there are quite difficult,” said retired Gen. Kevin P. Chilton, former head of Air Force Space Command and U.S. Strategic Command, during an AFA roundtable last month. “You not only have to provide the fighter pilot or the bomber pilot position of the threat, velocity of the threat, direction of the threat, but altitude of the threat. And that’s a lot tougher mission than GMTI, where you’re just tracking movement of vehicles on the ground. And so I’m not sanguine that we’re going to quickly field an AMTI capability that we definitely need to enhance our ability to gain and maintain air superiority and to deter an adversary from thinking they can do the same by putting that capability into space.” 

Asked if the Space Force can field an AMTI capability in the next two years, Burt demurred, but reiterated the need to develop different methods of targeting.  

“I think the important part here is the analysis of alternatives that will be delivered this fall, I think, [is] going to be very telling,” she said. “As I said earlier, we believe it’s multiple phenomenologies. There’s no one silver bullet of a phenomenology that’s going to do this.” 

Congress is ready to fund a solution. Lawmakers included $2 billion in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for “air moving target indicator military satellites.” Burt said the “additional funding was really about how to do the [research and development] of these various capabilities, and how to flesh them out and see how they would operate,” Burt said. 

Demonstrations are are already underway, according to Lt. Gen. Shawn N. Bratton, who said in May at a Mitchell Institute event that “there are some demonstration activities going on” to prove space-based AMTI. Around the same time, U.S. Northern Command boss Gen. Gregory Guillot said “we have a number of prototype systems on orbit now” for the AMTI mission. 

Burt said lessons from tracking objects on the ground will ultimately help steer the way for airborne target tracking. “The technology part will work itself out,” she said. “But I think the lessons we are learning in GMTI are building a framework for how we will task and execute as we move into AMTI.” 

The Space Force is drawing from expertise in the intelligence community for ground target tracking. “GMTI is part of a larger family of satellites that we’ve been working on with the Intelligence Community,” Burt said. “The initial satellites that are launching are capabilities that will help enable GMTI” using space-based electoral-optical sensors and radar. The “actual” GMTI satellites, she said, will launch next year. 

The National Reconnaissance Office has launched more than 100 satellites in recent years as part of a proliferated low-Earth orbit architecture that it says enhances its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance work. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is also working on targeting, developing new analytic tools. 

“We’re learning right now every day with ground moving target indicators,” Burt said. “Working very closely with the NRO and NGA, we are working together in the Joint Mission Management Center, the JMMC, working with NGA and really building off their expertise in looking at moving targets, and how do you pull multiple intelligence capabilities together to execute that?” 

The Space Force asked for $1 billion In its 2026 budget request for GMTI investment, noting it is “working collaboratively with the military services, Combatant Commands, and the Intelligence Community” to field a targeting capability.

The ultimate objective, Burt said, is to “take sensor-to-shooter data directly to the cockpit for moving targets.”