Friday, November 7, 2025 l Vol. 50, Number xx
JUNGLE OPERATIONS TRAINING Page 2
SERVING TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE AND THE MILITARY COMMUNITY OF SOLANO COUNTY
DRONE WINGMAN’S FIRST FLIGHT Page 4
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Daily Republic file (2013)
Twenty-two planes take off as part of a training exercise and to commemorate 9/11 at Travis Air Force Base, Sept. 11, 2013.
As space weapons proliferate, spy satellites are getting new duties Tribune Content Agency
Michael Dougherty/AFNORTH and AFSPACE file photos
F-16 fighter jets supporting the North American Aerospace Defense Command flying under U.S. Northern Command authorities, intercept a “Track of Interest” aircraft as part of AMALGAM EAGLE 25, an air defense and search and rescue
exercise to improve operational compatibility between the NORAD, USNORTHCOM, the Mexican Secretariat of National Defense and interagency partners. This year’s exercise is focused on preparation for the 2026 World Cup.
Air Forces Northern completes AMALGAM EAGLE-25
F-16 fighter jets take part in AMALGAM EAGLE 25.
U.S. F-16 and Canadian CF-18 fighter jets supporting the North American Aerospace Defense Command flying under U.S. Northern Command authorities, intercept a “Track of Interest” aircraft as part of AMALGAM EAGLE 25.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Satellite imaging company Vantor – formerly Maxar Intelligence – has signed a contract with the U.S. Space Force to help run a “neighborhood watch” in space to monitor for space-based threats like rogue satellites or debris that ground sensors may miss. Under the new contract, Vantor will use satellites it already has in orbit to monitor space and protect U.S. satellites, helping provide a sort of “neighborhood watch” in low earth orbit, the increasingly crowded area of space between 99 to 1,200 miles above the surface, Susanne Hake, Vantor’s general manager for U.S. government, told Defense One in an email. The program will use “Vantor’s existing imaging satellites on orbit,” she said. “We have 10 satellites, 7 of which can collect space-to-space imagery, also called non-Earth imagery.” Vantor did not disclose the value of the contract.
A brief timeline of new space weapons During the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union researched potential space-based weapons, but little came of the efforts – other than a lot of radiation from one particularly dangerous U.S. experiment. In 2010, observers spotted two Chinese satellites performing a type of rendezvous in space, the purpose of which was unclear. As former U.S. Air Force officer Brian Weeden observed at the time, Russia soon followed suit with its own satellites that appeared to be conducting “rendezvous and proximity operations” with one another. In July 2020, U.S. Space Command said Russia was conducting space-based anti-satellite tests. In March 2023, U.S. Space Force Chief Gen. Chance Saltzman told lawmakers that China was also “testing on-orbit satellite systems, which could be weaponized as they have already shown the capability to physically control and move other satellites.” In March of this year, Space Force Vice Chief See Spy, Page 4