Air Force picks three microreactor vendors for installation pairings

The Air Force’s microreactor program just moved from broad interest to a buildout test that matters far beyond one set of bases: if these pairings advance, military installations could become some of the first real markets where small reactors are permitted, financed and eventually operated at scale.

On April 22, the Department of the Air Force, working with the Defense Innovation Unit, selected Radiant Industries, Antares Nuclear and Westinghouse Government Services for its Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations initiative. Radiant was paired with Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado, Antares with Joint Base San Antonio in Texas, and Westinghouse Government Services with Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. The service said the matches were made to align mission requirements with site-specific characteristics and energy-resilience priorities, rather than treating the effort as a generic procurement exercise.

That distinction is the story. The Air Force said the selections now unlock the next phase of siting and environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act, which pushes the program closer to the kind of land-use and regulatory work that precedes actual construction decisions. The service wants at least one advanced nuclear reactor operating at a Department of the Air Force installation by 2030 or sooner, making this more than a paper exercise. It is a commercialization milestone, but not yet a construction award.

The April 22 announcement also filled in the last piece of the site map. Buckley Space Force Base and Malmstrom Air Force Base were named as the first two ANPI sites on April 8, and Joint Base San Antonio was added as the third location in the vendor announcement. That gives the program a broader footprint across Colorado, Texas and Montana, while keeping each pairing tied to a specific operational need.

For the vendors, the Air Force’s move broadens the advanced-nuclear market beyond utilities and industrial buyers and into federal installation power. Westinghouse Government Services has already linked its eVinci microreactor to Malmstrom, while the Air Force identified Radiant for Buckley and Antares for Joint Base San Antonio. The practical question now is whether those pairings can survive the permitting, environmental review and siting work that separates a contract headline from a reactor on the ground.

The ANPI push is separate from the longer-running microreactor pilot at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, which the Air Force says could supply up to 5 megawatts of electricity to critical base infrastructure. That project has been described as the first commercial microreactor pilot for the Department of Defense. Together, the two efforts show the Pentagon is no longer just talking about resilient power. It is building the federal pathway that could make on-site nuclear generation a real option when the grid goes down.