The Space Force’s deep-space radar hit a testing milestone in recent weeks, using seven of its antennas to track multiple satellites in orbit from a site in Australia.
The Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability, or DARC, is being built by Northrop Grumman to detect and track activity in geosynchronous orbit — from space debris to hostile movement that could harm U.S. or allied satellites.
The ground-based system is slated to be fully operational by 2027 and is the first of three radars the service is building as part of a partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom to improve their visibility into what’s happening on orbit.
The recent demonstration was part of DARC’s integration and testing phase, which started in the last few weeks. The radar will ultimately use 27 parabolic antennas for its deep-space tracks. Kevin Giammo, Northrop’s director for space surveillance and environmental intelligence, told Defense News the ability to use a subset of those shows that the company’s design is solid and ready to scale.
“Each of those parabolic dishes have a certain amount of capability on their own, but as you are able to make these dishes work together as a set of arrays, what you’re really doing is you are creating the equivalent of a very large radar with immense capabilities,” Giammo said.
As the program moves through its test campaign, it will continue to increase the number of antennas it’s using, making its observations more accurate and persistent.
In parallel to its development of the first DARC radar, Northrop is also beginning work on the second system, which will be based in the United Kingdom. The company received a $200 million contract for DARC 2 last year.
The Space Force is currently working with the U.K. government on the environmental assessments and other processes that have to occur before they can begin building on the site. Giammo said the completion of that work will dictate Northrop’s schedule for producing and delivering the radar.
“We certainly will be working to optimize when different aspects of the activity are executed based on how things are progressing with that government-to-government coordination,” he said. “There’s a lot of work that we’re already doing, but there’s certainly more that’s to come.”
Northrop will be able to take advantage of much of the work it’s done on the first radar as it starts to build the second — and eventually the third — system. Giammo noted there may be some design differences between the systems, and the company is working with the Space Force to define what changes are needed for the U.K. radar
“They’re fielding similar sites in different locations, so there’s always some uniqueness that will happen,” he said.
The Space Force’s fiscal 2026 base budget request does not include funding for DARC, though the service has said it plans to use $281 million from Congress’ $150 billion reconciliation bill for the effort.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Defense Department’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.