Lt. Col. MacKenzie Birchenough, materiel leader for Space Safari within Space Systems Command, said the U.S. Space Force intends to deploy tactically responsive space capabilities “by the 2025 or 2026 timeframe,” Breaking Defense reported Friday.
Birchenough said during a panel discussion at a symposium that the service branch wants to bring assets into space within 24 hours following a request and is looking at two different missions when it comes to responding to on-orbit needs.
“The first is the ability to rapidly respond to any kind of on-orbit threats. And then the second is, if any of our current assets on orbit were to be degraded or destroyed, having the ability to augment that capability on a very short timeline,” she noted.
Space Force is testing the concept through demonstrations, including the first one conducted in June 2021, when the Tactically Responsive Launch-2 mission launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket.
The service is preparing to launch another tactically responsive space demo in 2023 with the Victus Nox mission. Birchenough said the branch expects the trial to provide an opportunity to gain new lessons that would help inform future demonstrations.