22 July 2025

Sparring in space' – BBC gains rare access to US base tracking global missile strikes


There's a short sharp shout: "Launch Yemen!" The men and women in uniform sitting in front of computers all respond in unison, "Copy, launch Yemen."

In the US Space Force, they're called Guardians, not troops. Staring into their screens at a base in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado, 

they're able to track a missile launch from anywhere in the world - and follow it from its launch site to its likely point of impact.

We're the first international journalists to be allowed inside the US Space Force's missile warning and tracking operations room at Buckley Space Force base, a nerve centre where Guardians are on alert 24/7.

They're surrounded by giant monitors which provide maps and data sent from a constellation of military satellites in space.

These Guardians are the first to detect the infra-red heat signature when a missile is launched. Moments later there's another shout – "Launch Iran" - followed by a chorus of "Copy launch Iran."

This time, it's a drill. But last month they were doing it for real – when Iran fired a salvo of missiles towards the US military base at al-Udeid in Qatar, in response to US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Colonel Ann Hughes describes the mood on that day as "heavy". Unlike most launches, they'd been warned about that one in advance. 

They were able to track those Iranian missiles and then feed that information to the air defence batteries on the ground.

Ultimately we saved the entire installation and the personnel that were there," she says, expressing relief.

No comments: