Space Force Selects Texas as Location for Final Deep Space Radar Site
The U.S. Space Force has selected Lake Kickapoo, Texas, as the preferred site for the third and final Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability installation. This milestone completes the strategic basing plan for continuous, global Space Domain Awareness across geostationary orbit.
The U.S. Space Force has formally approved project planning and identified Lake Kickapoo, Texas, as the preferred location for the third and final Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC) site. Once operational, this location will complete a global, three-site ground-based radar network engineered to deliver continuous, day-and-night, all-weather tracking of assets and potential threats in geostationary orbit (GEO). DARC fills critical gaps in high-altitude tracking, providing uninterrupted and overlapping coverage to safeguard vital military, intelligence, and commercial satellite architectures.
For defense and national security leadership, the finalization of the DARC triad marks a decisive leap forward in Space Domain Awareness (SDA). Geostationary orbit hosts critical early-warning, military communications, and strategic surveillance satellites that operate nearly 22,000 miles above Earth. Historically, tracking small or stealthy objects at GEO altitudes has been constrained by environmental conditions and coverage gaps. DARC’s advanced ground-based radar array offers high-capacity target tracking and characterization, ensuring commanders maintain tactical decision advantage in an increasingly congested and contested orbital theater.
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