The Air Force announced that it stopped work on the Defense Weather Satellite System in accordance with Congress’ directive that terminated the program in Fiscal 2012. Lawmakers zeroed out funding for the future weather-monitoring satellite in this fiscal year’s defense appropriations and instead instructed the Air Force to continue pursuing weather sensor development and requirements definition that would lead to a new military satellite system that is openly competed. DWSS emerged out of the cancelled tri-agency NPOESS weather satellite program as the planned successor to the Air Force’s legacy Defense Meteorological Satellite Program spacecraft. There are still two more DMSP satellites yet to launch, DMSP-19 and DMSP-20, so Air Force officials maintain that the constellation will continue to provide the US military with “high-quality and timely weather data” into the mid-2020s—presumably while a new system is devised and brought into service. Northrop Grumman was the prime contractor for DWSS; Raytheon was a sensor provider.
US Space Command Should Always Be Led by a Guardian
Sept. 12, 2026
General Stephen Whiting took command of U.S. Space Command in January 2024, and if customary three-year tenures hold, his tour would end in January 2027. The question now before the President and Senate is who should follow him? Whoever they choose, it has to be a Guardian—and so should every successor…
