Space Force’s GMTI program gets a name, with Northrop as prime: General

A GMTI image with tracking. (Image: IMSAR)

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Space Force plans to begin launching a new satellite constellation that can track ground targets from orbit by 2028, according to a top service official.

Speaking with reporters at the Air & Space Forces Association conference here, Space Force Lt. Gen. Gregory Gagnon revealed that the Resilient Radar System-Ground, or RRS-G, program will go up “in the next two years.” The satellite system is built by Northrop Grumman, the general said.

Officials have previously discussed plans to get Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI)-capable birds on orbit by 2028, but until now have not disclosed the name for the specific program or the company building the satellites. Northrop did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Currently ground targets are primarily tracked by sensors aboard manned and unmanned aircraft, but the Pentagon has long-sought to shift that mission, plus the tracking of aerial targets, to space-based platforms.

Gagnon, the commander of the Space Force’s Combat Forces Command, said that the service last month established its first “space-based sensing and tracking unit” dubbed the 77th Surveillance Squadron . The unit was stood up, the general explained, “to start the process of ground moving target indicator [missions], which is from the RRS-G constellation.”

The Space Force has partnered with the National Reconnaissance Office for the GMTI mission, and the service is working in parallel to develop satellites that can do the same for airborne targets. The first among many satellites for the air tracking mission, known as AMTI, will be launched this month, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said on Monday.

The Space Force plans to have an initial AMTI constellation working by 2028, following a multibillion-dollar award in May to SpaceX. It’s not clear when a GMTI constellation may be operational.

The Space Force’s baseline fiscal 2027 budget request includes $1.02 billion for GMTI procurement, while separately asking for over $7 billion in reconciliation funds for the AMTI mission. The service is also requesting roughly $1.1 billion — using combined baseline and reconciliation funding — under a separate R&D effort.

In a separate roundtable today, Col. Timothy Trimailo, the head of the Space Force’s Commercial Space Office, said the Space Force would soon move to put commercial vendors on contract to provide space domain awareness services. Space domain awareness, or SDA, broadly refers to the ability to track and discern intent of objects in orbit.

The Space Force last year awarded pilot contracts to four companies for SDA work under the service’s Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve (CASR), which essentially aims to augment military tech with commercial capabilities in wartime. The “first step” for CASR, according to Trimailo, is to dole out contracts for operational SDA work. Those contracts will be awarded “very soon” according to the colonel.

Trimailo spoke broadly about what kinds of services CASR might pursue after the SDA mission, saying only that officials are “looking across a wide range of missions” given “a lot of demand” to examine various needs “that might be suitable” for a similar CASR arrangement.

“We’re trying to get some momentum here, and we are going to deliver operational capability through these contracts,” he said.

一张带有跟踪功能的GMTI图像。（图像来源：IMSAR）

马里兰州国家港——据一位高级军官透露，太空军计划在 2028 年前开始发射一个新的卫星星座，该星座可以从轨道上跟踪地面目标。

在空军与太空部队协会会议上，太空部队中将格雷戈里·加尼翁向记者透露，地面弹性雷达系统（RRS-G）项目将在“未来两年内”启动。加尼翁中将表示，该卫星系统由诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司制造。

此前，官员们曾讨论过在2028年前将具备地面移动目标指示器（GMTI）能力的卫星送入轨道的计划，但至今尚未透露具体项目名称或卫星制造商。截至发稿时，诺斯罗普公司尚未回复置评请求。

目前，地面目标主要由有人驾驶和无人驾驶飞机上的传感器跟踪，但五角大楼长期以来一直寻求将这项任务以及空中目标的跟踪转移到天基平台。

太空军作战部队司令部司令加尼翁表示，该军种上个月成立了首个“天基传感和跟踪部队”，即第77监视中队。这位将军解释说，该部队的成立是为了“启动地面移动目标指示器（GMTI）任务，该任务基于RRS-G星座”。

美国太空军已与国家侦察局合作开展全球移动目标指示（GMTI）任务，同时也在同步研发能够对空中目标执行相同任务的卫星。空军部长特洛伊·梅因克周一表示，首颗用于空中目标跟踪任务（AMTI）的卫星将于本月发射，该任务是众多卫星中的首颗。

美国太空部队计划在2028年前建成首个AMTI星座，此前SpaceX公司在5月份获得了数十亿美元的合同。目前尚不清楚GMTI星座何时能够投入运行。

美国太空军2027财年基本预算申请包括10.2亿美元用于全球移动通信技术倡议（GMTI）采购，同时还单独申请了超过70亿美元的协调资金用于先进移动通信技术倡议（AMTI）任务。此外，太空军还申请了约11亿美元（包括基本预算和协调资金）用于一项独立的研发项目。

在今天举行的另一场圆桌会议上，美国太空军商业航天办公室主任蒂莫西·特里迈洛上校表示，太空军很快将与商业供应商签订合同，以提供太空领域感知服务。太空领域感知（SDA）广义上是指跟踪和识别轨道物体意图的能力。

去年，美国太空军根据其商业增强太空储备（CASR）计划，向四家公司授予了太空发展援助（SDA）试点合同。CASR 的主要目标是在战时利用商业能力增强军事技术。据特里迈洛上校称，CASR 的“第一步”是发放 SDA 运营合同。这些合同将“很快”授予。

Trimailo 大致谈到了 CASR 在 SDA 任务之后可能会寻求哪些类型的服务，他只表示，鉴于“大量需求”，官员们正在“考察各种任务”，以研究各种“可能适合”类似 CASR 安排的需求。

他说：“我们正在努力取得一些进展，我们将通过这些合同提供作战能力。”