A 56,000-square-foot Space Force laboratory and data center under construction in Kīhei is expected to be completed in early 2027. The Secure Integration Support Laboratory is intended to support Space Force telescopes on Haleakalā, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
The Kīhei building should not be confused with AMOS STAR, a separate proposal to add as many as seven telescopes in a state conservation district near Haleakalā’s summit. The proposal drew more than 650 written submissions. That opposition is about AMOS STAR; it does not, on its own, show community opposition to the Kīhei facility.
The Space Force has said the Kīhei site will bring personnel and operations now spread across four leased Maui locations together on federally owned property, and will not operate as a commercial data center, according to Maui Now. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s report describes broader concerns for military computing in Hawaiʻi, including the island’s power constraints and the distance to cloud infrastructure. Neither report cited here provides a facility-specific total for Kīhei’s expected electricity or water use.
The facility’s role in a wider AI effort
The Kīhei project is part of a wider military technology landscape. PACOM has directed adoption of AI across its organization.
The same report also described PACOM’s stated approach of requiring analysts to assess evidence from data tools rather than accept their output without scrutiny. Power and connectivity challenges are part of the broader discussion of military computing infrastructure in Hawaiʻi.
The risks of relying on AI-generated intelligence were illustrated by a separate incident reported by CNN: a chatbot used by a Special Operations Command analyst misidentified cargo on a Chinese ship, contributing to a false intelligence report. U.S. troops were preparing to intercept the vessel before officials caught the error, CNN reported.
