Pentagon's Plans To Track Aircraft From Orbit Accelerated With New $4B SpaceX Deal

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Pentagon’s Plans To Track Aircraft From Orbit Accelerated With New $4B SpaceX Deal

A satellite network to track aircraft could offer unprecedented ability to surveil the skies globally and make AEW&C aircraft redundant.

By Joseph Trevithick

Published

May 29, 2026 6:37 PM EDT

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The U.S. Space Force has awarded SpaceX a $4.16B deal to help accelerate work on what could be a game-changing, space-based air moving-target indicator (AMTI) sensor network. The service says it now hopes to have an "early capability" in orbit by 2028, years ahead of the timelines officials have put forward in the past.

Plans for an AMTI satellite constellation were directly tied to an attempt in the past year to axe purchases of E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft, something the Pentagon has now fully abandoned after Congress intervened. Though the Air Force is moving ahead again with the E-7, which will succeed its aging E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) jets, the end goal remains to eventually push most, if not all, AMTI tasks into space.

Aircraft like the E-7 Wedgetail seen here have historically been critical providers of AMTI capability. Australian Department of Defense

"The long-standing method of military airborne platforms to track moving targets faces continued challenges as adversaries develop increasingly sophisticated anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) systems," the Space Force said in its press release about the new deal with SpaceX today. "To compliment [sic; complement] traditional airborne sensing, the requirement for a layered, highly resilient tracking architecture is evident. SB-AMTI aims to enhance the Space Force’s capabilities to the Joint Force through the establishment of a persistent, global capability to sense and track airborne targets from space."

The Space Force has described the $4.16 billion deal with SpaceX for the Space-Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator (SB-AMTI) program as a "competitive Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreement," rather than a traditional contract. The agreement came via the office of the Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Space-Based Sensing & Targeting (PAE SBST).

"This initial award is projected to field a constellation of satellites by 2028, providing the Joint Force with an early capability to eliminate operational blind spots," according to the Space Force release.

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In the past, U.S. officials have generally talked about space-based AMTI becoming a reality sometime in the 2030s. Work is underway to push ground moving-target indicator (GMTI) tasks into orbit, as well.

Some degree of on-orbit prototype AMTI sensor testing has already been ongoing for at least a year, if not much longer, but this work has been heavily classified. In addition to the U.S. Air Force and Space Force, both of which fall under the Department of the Air Force, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has been involved in this work. The NRO, the activities of which are shrouded in heavy secrecy, is a U.S. military organization that serves as America’s main remote sensing intelligence arm.

"The capabilities that are happening in space are far exceeding our expectations," then-Air Force Maj. Gen. Christopher Niemi said at a hearing earlier this year as part of a response to a question about plans for the E-7. He declined to offer more details publicly. Niemi, who has since been promoted to lieutenant general, is currently Deputy Chief of Staff of the Air Force for Force Modernization, and the service’s Chief Modernization Officer.

You’d think there would be friction between the Air Force and the Space Force now that AMTI, GMTI, and several core missions are being shared or transitioning heavily toward orbit. Not quite. https://t.co/VWMav3Js75 pic.twitter.com/oRzxlsXgWM<br>— Air-Power | MIL-STD (@NatSecLedger) May 29, 2026

SpaceX has already reportedly been deeply involved in this work, too, as you can read about more in this past TWZ feature. This underscores the company’s ever-growing dominance globally in all aspects of...