Air Force Research Lab’s Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland AFB, N.M., is working toward launching a “football field in length,” five-ton space-based radar antenna demonstrator in 2010. The aim of the program is to put antennas in space that can provide intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance data for ground target detection. The effort’s official name is Innovative Space-based radar Antenna Technology, or ISAT. It’s one of the key technologies behind the Space-Based Radar. Two contractor teams—Boeing and Raytheon and Lockheed Martin and Harris—are vying to build the 100-yard long experimental antenna. Ultimately, the structures could extend to 300 yards. They will be deployed in a folded position.
The Air Force budget would grow to $234 billion while Space Force spending would shrink to $26 billion under the White House's yearly ask.