Overview
- The Space Force selected Lake Kickapoo, Texas as the preferred location on Sept. 9, pending FAA and other planning approvals and a contract award that the service says will let construction begin in 2027.
- Service documents project civil construction finished in 2029 and operational acceptance of the Texas radar in 2030, with testing and technical evaluation to follow the build phase.
- The Government Accountability Office has flagged repeated schedule slips and extra costs for Site 1 that stem from technical fixes and foreign‑partner requirements, and it projects the full three‑site network may not be ready until December 2032.
- Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor building the radars using Johns Hopkins APL’s mesh antenna design, and Lake Kickapoo’s prior role hosting the AN/FPS‑133 Space Fence influenced its selection because of existing site attributes.
- If approvals and contracts proceed, the three‑site DARC network will give operators persistent, all‑weather surveillance of GEO to better track and characterize satellites and debris, and the program’s near‑term risks to watch are FAA certification, contract timing, and follow‑on testing results.