As threats in space and the electromagnetic spectrum accelerate, defense leaders are under growing pressure to deliver faster, more integrated capabilities. Defense News recently spoke with Jeff Hanke, President, Space Systems at L3Harris Technologies, about how industry is responding across missile warning and defense, space domain awareness, and electronic warfare.
Hanke outlines the shift toward proven, on-orbit capabilities, resilient architectures, and software-defined systems that compress the timeline from detection to decision. The discussion also highlights a central challenge: moving at operational speed as adversaries already contest space in real time. The path forward, he argues, lies in tightly integrated, interoperable systems that deliver decision advantage at the pace of modern conflict.
Defense News: L3Harris has described its space-based missile defense capabilities as “proven and ready now.” For defense leaders who hear that phrase from a lot of vendors -- what does proven actually mean in this context, and what’s on orbit today that backs it up?
Hanke: There are two capabilities I can mention here that are proven on orbit and ready today: MDA’s Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) and the SDA Tracking Layer.
Last year, MDA confirmed the L3Harris HBTSS satellite uniquely demonstrated tracking against a live hypersonic target, providing the latency and high-fidelity track quality required to enable end-to-end missile defense. HBTSS is not a future promise—it is a proven capability. Working closely with the MDA Space Capabilities team, we moved with urgency to deliver a system that can detect and track advanced missile threats from space, including hypersonic missiles.
In addition, L3Harris’ Tranche 0 satellites successfully demonstrated the ability to identify missiles - in real time, and on orbit. This addressed one of the most challenging aspects of performing missile warning / missile tracking from Low Earth Orbit: the ability to detect and process a missile target, separate from the moving background clutter of the Earth while the satellite is traveling at orbital speeds of over 15,000 mph. Proliferated, resilient space architectures are essential to outpacing evolving threats. L3Harris is supporting the SDA Tracking Layer across all existing tranches, with four missile tracking satellites already on orbit for Tranche 0 and another 52 satellites in development across Tranche 1, Tranche 2 and Tranche 3.
Defense News: Hypersonic threats are driving the entire LEO constellation build-out. What’s the hardest technical problem your team has had to solve in tracking hypersonic glide vehicles, and where does the solution stand today?
Hanke: Hypersonic glide vehicles present unique challenges: they are fast, dim, and maneuverable, making detection difficult compared to traditional ballistic missile threats that follow predictable trajectories.
Engagement requires global coverage and persistent sensing from space. Industry can solve for this technical challenge.
What we must keep our eye on are bigger-picture challenges, including interoperability and the urgency of the threat. Let’s start with interoperability: It is likely that an enhanced national defense architecture will bring together legacy and next-generation capabilities from multiple companies, which makes it crucial that interoperability is an inherent part of design and development. The challenge at the architecture layer will be pulling together all these capabilities and assuring low latency command, control and interoperability.
At the same time, with a global threat that is moving faster than ever, it’s important to remember that it’s not just about mission capability, it’s also about timeliness. Solving for this means disrupting the legacy defense acquisition system and leveraging proven next-generation systems that have been developed and fielded, with new capabilities that can be rapidly sourced from across the space industrial base.
Defense News: The department is being asked to move faster than traditional acquisition timelines allow. How has L3Harris invested ahead of demand to make sure capability is ready when the mission requires it -- not 18 months after?
Hanke: Companies like ours have invested knowing that the threat exists and the demand signal would come. L3Harris took the opportunity to position for speed, scale and capability ahead of formal acquisition. Specifically, we recently made $250 million in capital expenditures to renovate and expand manufacturing facilities in Indiana, Florida and Massachusetts for space-based missile warning and defense technologies. These investments will enable us to produce a payload and a space vehicle per week for more advanced missions, and potentially faster depending on the demand signal. We’ve also taken action to ensure our second- and third-tier suppliers also have the capacity to quickly ramp up production of the tracking space sensor layer.
Our investments aren’t limited to space technologies – we’re also investing more than half a billion dollars across our sites in Alabama, Arkansas and Virginia to support the production of solid rocket motors that power key missile defense systems.
Defense News: Space-based missile defense is only as good as the kill chain it feeds. How does L3Harris think about its role beyond the sensor -- connecting detection to decision to defeat?
Hanke: As the global threat from near-peer adversaries is moving faster than ever, U.S. Defense leadership is looking to industry to rapidly deliver capabilities that can preserve peace through strength. Next-generation missile warning and defense will require the most advanced capabilities from every part of our defense industrial base. We must be prepared to deliver. As a key industry partner, L3Harris is ready to rapidly deliver the resilient, proliferated, multilayered solutions that align with national defense priorities.
Defense News: Ground systems rarely get the headline attention that satellites do. You just won a $150 million contract to sustain and modernize critical Space Force ground infrastructure -- why should defense leaders care deeply about who’s running this layer?
Hanke: Ground systems are the invisible backbone of space superiority—they don’t just “support satellites,” they turn raw orbital data into real-time command decisions that enable warning, targeting, and maneuvering in a contested domain. As Chief of Space Operations Gen. Saltzman has emphasized, the Space Force must become a “warfighting service” that can deliver decision advantage at speed, and that starts with modern, resilient ground architectures that can process and fuse data fast enough to matter in a fight.
As evidenced in L3Harris’ MOSSAIC work and broader SDA modernization efforts, these systems are being upgraded to deliver faster decision cycles, higher-fidelity tracking, and resilient command-and-control under attack or disruption. Whoever runs this layer is effectively operating the “nervous system” of space operations—if it’s slow, fragmented, or brittle, even the most advanced satellites lose their warfighting value, which is why leaders like Gen. Saltzman consistently stress speed, integration, and operational readiness as decisive factors in future conflict.
Defense News: GBOSS is nearing operational acceptance. What does that milestone actually unlock for the warfighter on day one of full ops?
Hanke: Last week, the U.S. Space Force declared that GBOSS has achieved operational acceptance. This means the capability has crossed the most important threshold: it is no longer a developmental upgrade—it is officially part of the Space Force’s operational Space Surveillance Network, delivering authoritative deep-space tracking data directly to warfighters in real time. This unlocks immediate improvements in timely, high-fidelity space domain awareness, enabling faster detection, identification, and tracking of objects that could threaten critical U.S. and allied space assets.
From day one of full ops, operators gain a more resilient and precise “space picture,” which directly improves decision speed for collision avoidance, anomaly response, and threat characterization in an increasingly contested orbital environment.
Most importantly, operational acceptance means GBOSS is now trusted as a mission system—not just a test article—so its data can be fully integrated into Space Force command-and-control workflows, compressing the timeline from sensing to decision to action and strengthening space superiority in real time.
Defense News: The U.S.-Australia Space Surveillance Telescope partnership is a real example of allied space integration in action. How is the coalition approach to space domain awareness maturing, and where are the gaps that still need to close?
Hanke: The U.S.–Australia Space Surveillance Telescope partnership shows coalition Space Domain Awareness is maturing from data-sharing into true jointly sustained sensing infrastructure, where allies are co-investing in long-term performance, upgrades, and mission continuity of critical orbital “watchtower” capabilities. This really reflects a shift toward integrated allied systems that extend coverage and resilience rather than just exchanging feeds.
The gap is no longer sensors—it’s integration speed and interoperability, specifically the ability to fuse allied data into a single, real-time, decision-quality space picture with shared processing and command-and-control. Until that is solved, coalition SDA will remain strong at the edge, but not fully unified at the point of decision.
Defense News: With MOSSAIC, GBOSS, SST, and ATLAS all in play simultaneously -- how does L3Harris manage modernization across that portfolio without creating seams adversaries can exploit?
Hanke: L3Harris manages modernization across all of these by deliberately architecting them as a connected SDA ecosystem—not separate programs—so upgrades to sensors, data, and command-and-control are continuously integrated across the portfolio rather than fielded in isolated “stovepipes.” This approach, reflected in MOSSAIC and ATLAS modernization work, focuses on common data standards, resilient communications, and faster machine-to-machine tasking so improvements in one layer immediately strengthen the entire space domain awareness chain.
The goal is to obviously eliminate any seams before adversaries can exploit them, ensuring persistent, high-availability space surveillance data flows from sensor to decision advantage without latency gaps or integration breaks that create vulnerability windows.
Defense News: Meadowlands was purpose-built with the Space Force to disrupt hostile satellite communications in contested environments. How did the requirement evolve, and what drove the design decisions around automation and modularity?
Hanke: Correct. Meadowlands was purpose-built and is a highly agile, software-defined space electronic warfare system that gives the U.S. Space Force the ability to rapidly disrupt adversary satellite communications in contested environments, strengthening deterrence and protecting national security by ensuring the U.S. can deny an opponent’s use of space when it matters most. The requirement for Meadowlands evolved from a traditional counter-communications jammer into a more mobile, survivable, and rapidly upgradeable offensive space control system as adversary space-enabled threats accelerated and became more dynamic. That drove design choices around automation, modular RF architecture, and open software systems, enabling faster mission updates and reducing the need for large, fixed crews in contested environments.
L3Harris emphasized this shift toward a compact, trailer-mounted, plug-and-play system so the Space Force can rapidly reposition, upgrade capabilities, and maintain operational advantage while complicating adversary targeting and countermeasures.
Defense News: Electronic warfare in space is often treated as a classified black box. What can you share publicly about the threat environment that would help defense leaders understand why a system like Meadowlands is urgent right now -- not a future problem?
Hanke: The space threat environment is already active and contested, with adversaries demonstrating the ability to jam, spoof, and disrupt satellite communications and GPS-dependent services during both exercises and real-world operations—meaning electronic warfare in space is not theoretical, but operational today. Systems like Meadowlands are urgent because they give the U.S. Space Force a rapidly deployable, software-defined capability to disrupt hostile space-enabled systems and preserve U.S. and allied freedom of action in a domain where decision timelines are shrinking and contested access is the norm.
Defense News: Adversaries are constantly adapting their communications and jamming capabilities. How does Meadowlands keep pace, and what does “rapid global mobilization” look like in practice?
Hanke: Meadowlands keeps pace with evolving adversary jamming by being software-defined and modular, allowing the Space Force to rapidly update capabilities and reconfigure effects without waiting on major hardware refresh cycles. In practice, “rapid global mobilization” means a compact, transportable system that can be deployed, repositioned, and brought to mission-ready status quickly anywhere it’s needed, turning space electronic warfare from a fixed advantage into a globally maneuverable capability.
I’d like to add that this capability is absolutely needed now because adversaries are already contesting space in real time. Waiting for the “future threat” window means accepting operational disadvantage today. Expanding capabilities like Meadowlands is about scaling rapid, mobile electronic warfare capacity fast enough to match an accelerating threat cycle, where whoever can disrupt and reconstitute space-enabled services first controls the tempo of modern conflict.
Defense News: Across missile warning and defense, space domain awareness, and electronic warfare -- where is L3Harris placing its biggest bets for the next five years, and what keeps you up at night about whether the U.S. is moving fast enough?
Hanke: L3Harris is placing its biggest bets on integrated space superiority—connecting missile warning and defense, space domain awareness, and electronic warfare into a single, faster decision ecosystem that delivers action-ready data at speed and scale. Across programs like MOSSAIC, GBOSS, ATLAS, and Meadowlands, the focus is on resilient sensing, software-defined systems, and ground-to-space integration that give warfighters earlier warning and more options in a contested domain.
What keeps us up at night is whether the U.S. can move fast enough to stay ahead of adversaries who are already operating at “combat tempo” in space and the electromagnetic spectrum—because delay anywhere in the chain becomes exploitable vulnerability. The good news is L3Harris is built for exactly this moment: we’re ready now. As mentioned earlier, we’ve made significant investments in production capacity ahead of need and we’re delivering modernized, interoperable capabilities that compress timelines from detection to decision so that warfighters maintain the advantage in real time.
