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Officials outline missile‑warning timeline, satellite‑control upgrades and commercial capacity plans
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Summary
Space Force witnesses told a House subcommittee that SDA tranche‑1 launches begin this summer, missile‑warning capability will ramp this fall, and the service is pursuing SCN upgrades and commercial antenna capacity to handle proliferated satellite operations.
WASHINGTON — Space Force witnesses told a House Armed Services subcommittee that a mix of program launches, ground upgrades and commercial assignments are being used to expand missile‑warning coverage and address satellite control network capacity as the Department of Defense fields more satellites.
Major General Steven Purdy said the Space Development Agency (SDA) tranche‑1 launches are expected to start "toward the tail end of this summer," with missile‑warning capability beginning later this fall and continuing into early next year to reach operational performance. "They'll launch about, 1, mission or, a set of, of emissions a month," he said.
Why it matters: missile warning and tracking are central to homeland defense and to the proposed Golden Dome architecture discussed by members. Rapidly increasing satellite numbers strains command, control and the existing satellite control network (SCN), so Space Force officials are pursuing multiple remedies.
Purdy described the next‑generation SCN upgrade, an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar system called SCAR, which is on a complex development path with a planned demo this year and a first system to follow thereafter. He said the program is "too slow for my taste and too slow for the need, but it's going reasonably well."
As a complementary approach, Purdy described the Joint Antenna Marketplace (JAM), which will open commercial antenna capacity and orchestration tools to provide additional tasking and worldwide coverage. He said JAM could provide "hundreds of additional capacity" and enable machine‑to‑machine orchestration to pick the appropriate SCN, SCAR or commercial endpoint for a given task.
Purdy said a Unified Data Library is in use across multiple Space Force operations centers for positional tracking and interference analysis; the data feed supports common operating pictures for combatant commands and global operations centers.
What was not decided: the committee received timelines and program descriptions but no formal procurement votes or new statutory authorities were created in the open session. Some development pacing, exact delivery dates and costs were described as contingent and in progress.
Committee members said they will continue oversight of test and training architectures, SCN upgrades and use of commercial capacity to ensure integration across operational systems.
