Photo By Allen Meeks | U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command celebrates National Engineers Week, Feb....... read more read more
Subscribe
The U.S. Army is the largest user of space capabilities in the Department of War, and the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command is the Army’s proponent for space, as well as the Army Service Component Command to U.S. Space Command. Between history-defining launch capabilities and modern space interdiction technology, the Army has always benefited from technological advancements in space capabilities to benefit the warfighter. Behind every one of those achievements are engineers like those at USASMDC.
Part 1: The Boost Phase
Since the end of World War II, the United States has made investments in space and missile technologies. Far before USASMDC’s formal establishment in 1997, the Army helped lead development of the nation’s space programs. Advancements in Army rocketry began as early as the 1940s when the Army Ordnance Department developed some of America’s earliest ballistic missiles. In 1958, the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, a predecessor to USASMDC, launched Explorer I, America’s first satellite using an Army Redstone rocket. That same system would later be modified and used by NASA in 1961 to launch America’s first astronaut, Alan Shepard.
A major driver among these early Army space achievements was the Army team of scientists and engineers under Dr. Wernher von Braun. Although that team is most famous for the work they performed supporting NASA, it is important to note that prior to NASA’s establishment in 1958, a significant portion of ballistic missile and rocket booster technology was developed by the Army. Many of the scientists, and much of the research done pre-transfer, were utilized to develop and field ballistic missile and air defense systems such as Nike Ajax, Corporal, Redstone and Honest John.
In support of Army missile and air defense systems, Army engineers and scientists have been responsible for hundreds of patents ranging from technical propellants to tooth cleaning chemicals. Notable among these engineers is Dr. David C. Sayles, who holds over 200 patents.
A chemist and engineer, Sayles worked toward the advancement of Army space technologies for more than 25 years. Sayles’s vast library of patents includes chemical technology for propulsion, physical structures for rocket motors and even a method for making edible coatings to protect foods against spoiling. Sayles’s work, starting during the von Braun days, helped build the foundation of modern space technology.
Another notable engineer who transformed Army space, not only in technological development, but also the structure of USASMDC, is the recently retired deputy to the commanding general, Richard P. De Fatta. Prior to his tenure with USASMDC, most of De Fatta’s career was in close orbit, so to speak, to space technology. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1978 with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and later earned a master’s in laser physics. He then managed a significant number of Army systems, including the Pershing II missile system and various laser systems.
After retiring from the Army in 2005, De Fatta spent time in industry managing defense contractors supporting USASMDC before returning to the civil service as director of the Space and Missile Defense Command Technical Center’s Emerging Technology Directorate.
His leadership over science and technology directorates, including the Technical Center and its Capability Development and Integration Directorate, helped shape the technology USASMDC creates, but his role in the stand-up of the Space and Missile Defense Center of Excellence changed the structure of the command itself.
Today, the SMD CoE is the command’s architect for future force design, responsible for managing Army change to doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel and policy. The unique in-house relationship between SMD CoE’s materiel responsibilities and SMDCTC’s prototyping capabilities allow flexibility for USASMDC engineers to enhance warfighter capabilities.
“Our Center of Excellence is designed to set the requirements,” De Fatta said. “They will say, ‘I need an engineer to make this technology smaller or tell me how to put it into a mobile platform.’”
Those requirements are then carried out by SMDC Technical Center engineers.
In addition to establishment of the SMD CoE, De Fatta said, engineering at USASMDC underwent significant change during his time with the Army. Engineers went from building large missile systems to transforming technologies, developed both commercially and in-house, integrating them into space and missile defense capabilities for the Warfighter.
These structural changes within USASMDC allow engineers to deliver Warfighter capabilities and maintain the Army’s place as a leader in space technology. As the Army’s forces evolved, so did its space and missile technology needs.
“Over the 30 or 40 years I have been [in the Army], SMDC has gone from mostly technology and system development to now focusing on warfighting capability from an operational standpointand alsothesupporting elements of all those pieces,” De Fatta said.
Part 2: The Midcourse
USASMDC saw major transformation in 2025, adding two Army air and missile defense commands to its ranks. Between this and the founding of Joint Task Force Gold, the command has transitioned into a warfighting command with capabilities ranging from boots in the mud to exoatmospheric assets.
Driving that transformation are 134 USASMDC engineers. The USASMDC engineers of today design, prototype, integrate and test technologies to deliver warfighter capabilities and maintain space superiority.
Rachel Hickman, test engineer at the Reagan Test Site and program manager for the Portable Range Operations and Test Network, is one of those engineers.
Hickman has a unique background in engineering. After earning her bachelor’s degree in metallurgical and materials engineering, she went on to earn a master’s in business administration. According to Hickman, the combination of her lifelong interest in math and science and her knack for the business side of engineering has helped her as a technical manager of the PROTN team.
PROTN is a network that supports flight test missions all over the world, including hypersonic weapons testing and missile defense system testing. It can send and receive classified test data from the test location to any location in the world that has a PROTN node. The network can essentially ship any type of test data in real time or for post-test data processing including telemetry data, voice commands and video.
By providing testing and evaluation services for flight test missions all over the world, her team provides data that helps a variety of customers enhance Warfighter capabilities.
“Whether it’s in hypersonics or directed energy or space operations, [SMDC engineers] have our hands in so many different experiments and efforts to deliver capabilities to the warfighters and advance their mission,” Hickman said. “SMDC is on the forefront – we consider ourselves the premier in a lot of these technologies because we are doing the research to confirm that the fielded technology is going to do what it says it is going to do.”
In addition to validating technologies with the cutting-edge sensors of the PROTN network, USASMDC engineers also utilize old technology, giving it a second life to help validate Army weapons systems.
Meeda Bosse, an engineer in SMDCTC’s targets and test resources branch, utilizes what is called zombie targets. Zombie targets repurpose old rocket and missile hardware that would otherwise go to waste. Her team utilizes these to test missile defense systems.
Bosse’s team provides an end-to-end target testing service to customers in and out of the Army. Up to two years in advance, customers will set requirements for how a target must perform, and the team will integrate and build the target, then prepare for launch. USASMDC then provides a test and launch director and operates command-owned launchers.
“One way we help support the Warfighter is by providing testing against an operational system to help improve their capabilities before fielding,” Bosse said. “We have done some really difficult tests, but I am proud to be a part of a team that works really hard toward better technology that can better support our warfighters.”
Bosse is the most experienced test director within the targets and test resources branch with 10 ballistic missile launches under her belt.
“With every one of our launches is a new set of lessons learned or new validations that go to helping keep our Warfighters safe,” Bosse said.
USASMDC keeps its Soldiers well equipped and safe with a vast engineering portfolio beyond rockets and missiles, including directed energy, high altitude balloons and in the case of Jordan Dupree’s work, using radar systems to assist in the development of Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System measures.
Dupree is the lead test engineer for the Precision Tracking System (PTS) radar program, a validation tool for Army C-UAS testing. PTS is essentially the measuring stick used to verify that new tracking systems are accurate. Both systems will track the same object, and by comparing the new system’s data to PTS’s, analysis teams ensure the new system meets standards before it gets into the hands of Soldiers. PTS has supported testing of more than a dozen deployed U.S. Army systems, and tracks around 1,000 open-air targets per year.
“Analysis teams recreate the challenges a Soldier might face in the field within a controlled environment, and PTS provides the data needed to help inform solutions,” Dupree said. “At the end of the day, we want to do everything we can to ensure our men and women serving overseas have the best equipment possible.”
Dupree joined USASMDC at 18 as a summer intern, and this year marks his 18th year with the command. His experience across several directorates and his work with technology fielded worldwide gives him insight into how USASMDC engineers today help shape the technological landscape. However, his early start in his career demonstrates how USASMDC helps cultivate the engineers of the future.
Part 3: Terminal Guidance
Dupree was a Science Mathematics and Research for Transformation, or SMART, scholar. The SMART scholarship is combined educational and workforce development opportunity that allows STEM students to begin working for the DoW while still in school.
“My internships and the SMART scholarship laid the foundation for my career by providing real hands-on experience while I was still in school,” Dupree said. “I truly wouldn’t be the engineer I am today without the opportunities it provided, and, more importantly, the mentors who guided me along the way.”
All SMART scholars assigned to USASMDC serve their internships in the Concepts Analysis Branch, and new employees with bachelor’s and master’s degrees also begin their career with SMDC in the CAB. Teams throughout SMDCTC can request a variety of products from the CAB, including modeling and simulations, research and design for future weapons systems or ready-to-use prototypes.
“Basically, one of our key missions in the CAB is for our young engineers to gain wisdom from other engineers in the command,” Dr. Christopher Duron, acting chief for the concepts analysis branch, said. “We don’t really own any specific mission, but the way we find projects for the new hires and interns is through coordinating and collaborating with all of the other branches in the Tech Center.”
Duron added that one of the requirements when a team requests work from the CAB is that they also provide a mentor.
“Whoever receives a work product from the CAB is going to critique it and help our personnel improve as engineers,” he said.
Duron, a former SMART scholar himself, said that his time in the CAB gave him opportunities to work in a variety of areas, which helped lay the groundwork for his career.
“The SMART scholarship, and all of our internships, are more than just job training programs,” Duron said. “I think that between the mentorship and our unique projects, the internships not only set up the students for success but provide the command with excellent talent.”
| Date Taken: | 02.25.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 02.26.2026 15:17 |
| Story ID: | 559000 |
| Location: | REDSTONE ARSENAL, ALABAMA, US |
| Web Views: | 30 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, A Tale as Old as Spaceflight: How Army Engineers Help Build the Future of Space Weaponry, by Jacob Wologo, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
