Army Commits $67 Million to Shield Ground Forces From Space-Based Surveillance

The U.S. Army is investing nearly $67 million in electromagnetic warfare prototype systems designed to make it harder for adversaries to use space-based surveillance to find and target American forces. The award signals the service's effort to blunt what enemy satellites can see from orbit rather than attacking those satellites directly.

The effort responds to the growing threat posed by adversary satellites capable of tracking and targeting ground forces from orbit. Counterspace and counter-ISR work has largely been framed around attacking satellites directly, but this funding focuses instead on ground-side measures to limit the effectiveness of orbital surveillance.

The Army award, reported October 3, 2026, totals roughly $67 million and funds prototype electromagnetic warfare systems. The program centers on countering space-enabled surveillance, with the stated aim of complicating adversary efforts to locate and target U.S. forces using orbital assets.

The shift in approach reflects the Army treating orbital surveillance as a routine battlefield threat to plan against. By directing resources toward concealment and electromagnetic measures on the ground, the service is addressing the risk from the perspective of the forces being observed rather than the satellites doing the observing.

As orbital surveillance capabilities multiply, concealment from space is becoming a standing requirement for ground forces, and this prototype funding marks an initial step in building those capabilities into Army operations.