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Senators want a U.S. Space Force program executive office (PEO) to manage the acquisition of satellites that can track both air and ground moving targets from orbit, according to proposed legislation released June 14.
The U.S. Air Force has been examining how to shift the ground moving target indication (GMTI) mission away from aircraft such as the Northrop Grumman E-8C Joint Stars and toward space-based sensors, alongside partners in the intelligence community.
A proposed new PEO focused on that transition should also focus on space-based air moving target indication, and not just GMTI, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) says in an executive summary for the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), unveiled June 14.
The Space Force has only talked publicly about taking on the GMTI mission. The service earmarked about $5 billion in its fiscal 2024 budget request to study the mission’s transition away from the Joint Stars fleet and toward on-orbit capabilities over five years, the chief of space operations, Gen. Chance Saltzman, said in April 2023. A similar capability to track airborne targets from space has not been publicly discussed.
The SASC executive summary also directs creation of a PEO for space command, control and integration, which would then “acquire a system to support a combined operations center at the National Space Defense Center.”
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