WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is looking to bolster its ability to detect and track potential threats in the geosynchronous equatorial orbit, a critical orbital perch for the nation’s most important military and intelligence satellites.
With a growing need for better “space domain awareness,” the Pentagon wants additional satellites acting as eyes and ears in the GEO belt, about 22,300 miles above the Earth, said Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command.
U.S. Space Command, based in Colorado Springs, is responsible for military operations in the space domain.
The U.S. Space Force is modernizing ground-based sensors, such as a deep space radar, that are critical to monitoring the GEO belt, Whiting said March 20 during a meeting with reporters at the Pentagon.
Ground sensors, however, are limited by distance and weather so the Space Force and the intelligence community are working on new surveillance satellites to keep a closer eye on potential threats such as anti-satellite weapons.
“China has built this ‘kill web’ using space enabled capabilities over the Pacific where they can find, fix, track, target and engage U.S. and allied capabilities terrestrially and in space,” Whiting said. In response, he added, better awareness of what spacecraft are in orbit is critical.
Whiting on March 21 testified in front of the House Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces subcommittee. He told lawmakers Space Command submitted a $1.2 billion list of so-called “unfunded requirements” that were not included in the recently submitted 2025 defense budget.
Congress requires military leaders to submit these lists annually, shortly after the president’s budget is released.
Whiting said Space Command’s unfunded requirements include a number of systems needed to track and target potential threats.
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