“Six years ago, we knew the China threat was coming and we wanted to bring in the diversity of agencies, services, and academia to address this. We created the SHIELD program at USC that has put out 94 graduates. Two years ago, one of the capstones from the SHIELD program was to bring in the Pacific allies and to be able to create a much better relationship and be able to push out on sharing data. We have also done the Youth Impact Program for the last 8, maybe 10 years here at the University of Hawai’i with underprivileged kids, so we already had a relationship with this University and your community. We proposed, the capstone proposed, that we center the University of Hawai’i as a go-to place within academia to bring in and collect our Allies who will have to be able to take on the greatest threat to the world order today. That was the concept, and to leverage the University of Hawai’i’s best stuff, and they have some unique things, on that. SHIELD was policy focused, and UH is technical focused. The problem today is we are not getting capabilities into the warfighters’ hands right away. We can collaborate with the University to scale up concepts that can be funded and used. You’ll see it today: we have capabilities that are remarkable, that have come out of this University this first year. I’m giving you guys a little hype, but you deserve it. Those capabilities are going to be real and are going to be rapidly put in place. You are ahead of the game. This is the first year. We have gone through a lot of understanding of how to do this, and it has developed phenomenally. I am excited. This group knows it is Super Bowl Sunday and they are ready to go. Thank you for taking the risk and coming out with a product that will enhance this University as we continue to build this program with other Allied countries and our force structure here in Hawai’i.”
—Riki Ellison, Opening Remarks, ARTEMIS 1 Program Graduation Ceremony, March 7, 2026.
The Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance and the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa are honored to announce the graduation of the first cohort of the ARTEMIS Executive Education Program. This past Saturday, the cohort presented their completed capstone projects and attended the program’s first graduation ceremony, a major milestone in MDAA’s work to cultivate the next generation of space and deterrence leaders.
The ARTEMIS Program (Advanced Reconnaissance and Tracking for Environmental Monitoring and Indo-Pacific Security) is an executive education initiative developed by the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa in partnership with MDAA. The program trains senior professionals in emerging technologies and strategic leadership related to satellite sensing, space domain awareness, and advanced data systems. ARTEMIS is an intensive eight-month executive education program designed for senior leaders in space operations, national security, and advanced technology development. The inaugural program ran August 22, 2025 through March 7, 2026 and was conducted in person at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.
ARTEMIS was created to develop strategic leadership and technical expertise in satellite-based sensing systems, with particular emphasis on the Indo-Pacific region and Hawai’i’s critical role in global security, environmental monitoring, and space domain awareness.
UH ARTEMIS 1 Executive Program 2025-2026 Capstone Projects:
- Allied Routing for Group Unified Sensing (ARGUS)
- Monitoring and Analysis for Key Applications for Hawaii-INDOPACOM Knowledge and Intelligence (MAKAHIKI)
- Advanced Passive Exploitation and X-Clueing (APEX)
Introducing the Graduates of the University of Hawai’i ARTEMIS 1 Executive Program 2025-2026 Cohort:
- Lt. Col. Justin Cunningham, USSF Indo-Pacific
- Major Matthew Lynes, USINDOPACOM Special Operations
- Lt. Col. Joshua McCullion, USSF, HQ USINDOPACOM
- Lt. Col. Matthew O’Donnell, USSF Indo-Pacific
- Major Adam Other Gee, 94th Army Air & Missile Defense
- Major Christian Peters, USSF Indo-Pacific
- Major DJ Porter, US Air Force
- Major Lucas Spencer, 3d Marine Littoral Regiment
- LT Keith Taylor, COMPACFLT Fleet Information Warfare
- Lt. Col. Joshua Urness, 94th Army Air & Missile Defense
To date, USC SHIELD and UH ARTEMIS have collectively produced 104 graduates and 31 capstones, with prior capstone work becoming law, published papers, official courses of action, and real policy momentum shaping America’s space and missile defense enterprise. It was a USC SHIELD capstone project which led the creation of ARTEMIS, advocating for the development of a venue in which Allies, partners, and Americans can come together to collaborate on the hardest problems in Indo-Pacific air and missile defense in real time. That capstone recommended building a multilateral, diverse executive program modeled in the spirit of SHIELD.
The first stage of the ARTEMIS program’s creation began on January 16, 2024, when the University of Hawai’i and MDAA signed an MOU to cooperate on space sciences and advance the goal of making “Hawai’i the nation’s center for space-based observation of the Pacific.” Later that year, on August 14, 2024, the ARTEMIS opening forum launched the development of the initiative and the academic program. The goal was to illuminate the importance of the Indo-Pacific region and Hawai’i’s critical role and consequential contributions to National Security and to showcase the State of Hawai’i as an emerging market for Space activities and STEM programs through ARTEMIS. At the forum we identified the emerging strategic challenges and opportunities across the ARTEMIS construct as it relates to the National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy and we informed and generated ideas to define the 2025 Capstone Projects.
One year later, on August 22, 2025, the inaugural ARTEMIS 1 executive cohort took flight. We recruited a cohort of 10 participants from US Space Forces, USAF, US Army, US Navy, the Marines, COMPACFLT, 94th AAMDC, Special Operations, and an Australian Liaison/INDOPACOM to the program that ran from August 2025 through March 7, 2026.
“Championships are won by teams with momentum. It has taken leadership and courage to do this. I want to recognize the leaders who recognized this: Michael, Karen, and the military VIPs. And to Laura, to led the charge with the Air Force. You are ahead of the entire Department of War. They are in the process of doing a revolution for acquisition and development. You are bringing in the commercial outside the military to bring this in. This program has merged that together. This is a world class locker room. You trust each other. The trust you have with the freedom of discussion. You are ready to deploy operational capability. This is remarkable. You are part of something historic in front of what is going on in the world today. You need cheap innovation to win. Most of all it is leadership and culture. It is not technology. This is what the Secretary of War is trying to do. This is a change of culture. The gentlemen you are that culture change, this is the next generation of leadership. I want to congratulate you.”
—Riki Ellison, Closing Remarks, ARTEMIS 1 Program Graduation Ceremony, March 7, 2026.
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