Dubbed “Dragoon,” the satellite was one of the multiple payloads launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Monday via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the company’s Transporter-14 smallsat rideshare mission, according to SDA. The spacecraft is the first of 12 prototype satellites developed by York Space Systems under SDA’s Tranche 1 Demonstration and Experimentation System (T1DES) program to go on orbit.

In 2022, York Space Systems received a $200 million other transaction agreement from SDA to develop and deliver 12 T1DES platforms that were slated for launch beginning in fiscal 2026. However, the company accelerated delivery of the first payload to prepare it for Monday’s mission “in response to an identified agency need,” York said in a statement.

“The Dragoon mission showcases exactly why our rapid mission delivery model matters,” Melanie Preisser, York’s general manager and executive vice president, said in a statement. “When SDA needed this capability sooner, we didn’t just accelerate, we delivered. That kind of responsiveness is what today’s defense posture demands.”

SDA did not provide many details about the specific demonstration that the recently deployed Dragoon satellite will conduct on orbit, but noted in a statement that the payload will enable “tactical data delivery to warfighter platforms to support capabilities like targeting, missile warning and tracking of advanced missile threats” and “support integration with tactical [SATCOM] system capabilities from low Earth orbit.”

Broadly, birds developed under the T1DES program will augment the Tranche 1 transport layer of the agency’s future mega-constellation known as the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) and inform requirements for future programs.

“T1DES will demonstrate mission payloads and configurations for potential proliferation through future tranches of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture in an effort to lower latency of tactical data delivery and enhance beyond line-of-sight targeting capability,” SDA Director Derek Tournear said in a statement. “We’re very pleased to see this prototype space vehicle launch four months ahead of the original T1DES baseline schedule and before the first launch of Tranche 1’s operational space vehicles.”

The PWSA is a planned LEO constellation comprising hundreds of satellites carrying data relay, communications, missile warning and missile-tracking capabilities that will be launched in increments — known as tranches — every two years. The first operational batch of PWSA payloads known as Tranche 1 were expected to launch in September 2024, but supply chain bottlenecks and recent leadership instability have forced the agency to push the mission to late summer 2025.

The remaining 11 T1DES satellites are on track to launch sometime in fiscal 2026, SDA said in a statement. Once deployed, the constellation “will conduct demonstrations and experimentation of TACSATCOM, advanced waveforms, and Integrated Broadcast Service (IBS) capabilities, which are key for future connectivity of joint warfighters around the globe,” according to the agency.

SDA is also pursuing a second batch of experimental birds for Tranche 2 of the transport layer — an effort known as Tranche 2 Demonstration and Experimentation System (T2DES). The agency intends to leverage its new vendor pool established by the Hybrid Acquisition for Proliferated Low Earth Orbit (HALO) program to contract the effort.

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SDA announced the delay for Tranche 1 of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) in a statement on Friday, citing continued supply chain woes as the main contributor to the decision to postpone launch. The agency plans to conduct around one launch per month until all 154 Tranche 1 sats are on orbit.

The news marks yet another setback for SDA, which in recent weeks has been grappling with leadership changes and questions regarding the agency’s semi-independent acquisition authorities. However, the launch delay appears to be caused by supply chain bottlenecks related to the sheer number of satellites the agency plans to put on orbit.

“SDA continues to aggressively work toward the first Tranche 1 launch; however, as we progress through a normal assembly, integration, and testing campaign, with the added challenge of late supplier deliveries, it has become clear additional time is required for system readiness to meet the Tranche 1 minimum viable capability,” the agency said in a statement.

The PWSA is a planned constellation comprising hundreds of satellites stationed in low-Earth orbit. The program is divided into two main mission areas — data relay and communications in the transport layer, and missile warning and tracking in the tracking layer. SDA initially pursued an aggressive acquisition and launch schedule known as “spiral development,” which sought to put new satellites in space every two years.

The agency originally planned to begin launching Tranche 1 — considered the first operational batch of PWSA sats that would provide regional coverage of the Earth — in September 2024. That date was then postponed and re-slated for spring 2025, largely due to supply chain bottlenecks that have been a persistent hurdle in the architecture’s development.

Tranche 1 will consist of 158 satellites, including 126 in the transport layer, 28 in the tracking layer and four “missile defense demonstration” satellites. Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, York Space Systems and L3Harris are all prime contractors on the program.

The number of sats is a stark contrast to previous military space constellations, which historically only included a small quantity of large and exquisite space vehicles. As a result, both SDA and the space industrial base have been challenged to deliver critical parts — including optical communications terminals (OCT) and encryption devices — on time and at the scale needed to launch the PWSA.

“OCTs have experienced some scaling issues, encryption devices are limited and subject to approval outside SDA, propulsion systems were a challenge on [tranche 1] due to business issues as a supplier that several [tranche 1] prime vendors were using,” an SDA official told DefenseScoop on background.

The launch campaign for tranche 1 will begin with the transport layer, the official added. However, the agency has not yet determined which vendor will be the first to go on orbit in summer 2025, or how many space vehicles will be part of the inaugural tranche 1 launch, they said.

SDA emphasized that despite the latest delay in launching Tranche 1, the agency is committed to finishing on-orbit test and checkout of the satellites by mid-2026 and delivering “the entire initial warfighting capability” in early 2027.

“We are conducting enhanced integration checks and testing on the ground between now and the start of launch which helps build a higher degree of operational confidence,” the SDA official said. “It should also smooth out the test and checkout process on orbit to allow us to get to initial warfighting capabilities in 2027, as the warfighter is expecting.”

The official said subsequent launch campaigns for tranches 2 and 3 are still on track, noting that SDA began the acquisition process for tranche 3 earlier to allow for more time between award and launch. Because the supply chain issues impeding tranche 1 are related to scaling up production, the agency believes it will experience fewer delays once the industrial base catches up to SDA’s demand, they added.

“SDA’s top priority is to quickly deliver capabilities promised to the warfighter. Launch is a major milestone but one in a much larger path to delivering viable capabilities. Our goal remains to rapidly deliver functional capabilities with a high degree of operational confidence,” the agency said in a statement.

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Although SDA planned to validate the technology’s utility in Tranche 0 of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), the agency “has not yet successfully demonstrated the full range of its laser communications technology in space using its new [optical communications terminal] standard” as of December 2024, the Government Accountability Office wrote in a new report published Wednesday. 

As a result, the watchdog is recommending that SDA complete testing of the “minimum viable product” for laser link technology before pursuing future efforts — otherwise the organization runs the risk of moving forward with the PWSA’s development without incorporating critical lessons learned.

On-orbit laser communications involves using optical communications terminals (OCTs) to transmitting data via laser links between satellites, as well as to receivers located on land, sea and in the air. The technology is considered to have several advantages over radio frequencies traditionally used by the Defense Department for communications, such as being able to send data faster and more securely.

Laser comms are central to SDA’s planned mega-constellation known as the PWSA, envisioned as hundreds of satellites stationed in low-Earth orbit that create a “mesh network” of data relay, missile warning and missile-tracking capabilities for the U.S. military. However, the agency has previously stated that proving out laser links will be a challenging technological hurdle — a fact also noted in GAO’s new report.

“[T]his technology is much more complex, and the Space Force is working with multiple vendors to develop it. Nevertheless, the number of vendors involved adds further complexity to the overall effort,” the document stated. “Among other things, the Space Force will need to ensure that different vendors’ satellite optical communications terminals (OCT), devices used to establish laser data transmission links, are able to communicate with each other.”

The watchdog noted that SDA has taken steps to prove the technology, such as developing a government OCT standard, conducting OCT laboratory tests and maturing various component capabilities. But overall, efforts to fully demonstrate space-based laser links on the agency’s experimental satellites known as Tranche 0 have not moved as quickly as expected, according to GAO. 

Delays have been largely attributed to supply chain challenges that pushed the constellation’s launch back by several months. SDA has also stalled in demonstrating laser links in orbit due to challenges in coordinating ground support and the agency’s prioritization of other technologies over laser communications, the report added.

“Specifically, as of December 2024, SDA reported that one of its four prime contractors in [Tranche 0] had demonstrated three of the eight planned laser communications capabilities while another contractor had demonstrated one of the eight capabilities,” GAO officials wrote. “The remaining two contractors have not yet achieved any planned capabilities.”

In January, York Space Systems and SpaceX announced they had successfully demonstrated a laser link connection between two of their Tranche 0 satellites. However, the GAO report emphasized that the two companies are using OCTs developed by the same subcontractor, meaning “SDA has yet to demonstrate a link between two OCT vendors in space as originally planned.”

Furthermore, the watchdog claims that the agency’s plans to launch the first operational batch of PWSA satellites — known as Tranche 1 — in the coming months without having fully demonstrated its enabling technology does not align with best practices for rapid delivery of complex tech.

Dubbed “spiral development,” SDA’s acquisition approach for the PWSA involves rapidly fielding systems through incremental “tranches” every two years, allowing for each phase to build upon previous iterations and ensuring warfighters are using the most advanced technology available.

“Our leading practices emphasize that prioritizing schedule — as SDA has done — and using an iterative development approach can support delivering products with speed to users,” the report stated. “However, our leading practices also note that speed cannot come at the cost of demonstrating critical capability.”

The watchdog noted SDA still intends to demonstrate a Tranche 0 mesh network before it launches Tranche 1 — although the agency will test only some of the capabilities it originally planned. At the same time, the report highlighted that SDA’s goal to dramatically increase both the number of PWSA satellites in orbit and the complexity of their capabilities could be compromised if the agency doesn’t have demonstrated success from previous tranches. 

“Since [Tranche 1] and [Tranche 2] are already in development, SDA may have limited opportunities to incorporate required design changes into those designs,” officials wrote. “Incorporating design changes in those tranches could potentially delay capability, meaning that laser communications capability required to support multiple DOD missions may not be available for the warfighter as planned.”

GAO said the Pentagon has concurred with the four recommendations in the report, but added that the department “believes it is already implementing our recommendations” — a position the watchdog disagreed with.

“The evidence presented throughout our draft and final report supports our view that SDA is not already taking the actions we recommend. We continue to believe SDA would benefit from taking steps aimed at implementing our recommendations,” GAO concluded.

The report’s release comes after weeks of controversy surrounding the Space Development Agency, which is currently having its semi-independent acquisition authority being reviewed by the Pentagon, according to a report from Breaking Defense. At the same time, the Department of the Air Force has placed SDA Director Derek Tournear on administrative investigative leave following a bid protest that has since prompted the agency to re-compete one of the PWSA’s contracts.

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“We do not have the industrial capacity built today to get after this,” Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael Guetlein said Dec. 7 during a panel at the Reagan National Defense Forum. “We’re going to have to start getting comfortable with the lack of efficiency in the industrial base to start getting excess capacity so that we have something to go to in times of crisis and conflict.”

Resilience through proliferation

Historically, the Defense Department tended to develop a few very large and exquisite satellites to conduct critical military missions. But with the growing use of space as a warfighting domain by both the United States and its adversaries, the Pentagon is now focusing on different ways to build resilience in its space systems — such as by launching hundreds of smaller, inexpensive satellites for a single constellation.

At the forefront of the relatively novel approach is the Space Development Agency’s spiral acquisition strategy that is being used for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). Once it’s built out, the constellation is expected to comprise hundreds of satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and include space vehicles carrying different communications, data relay, missile warning and missile tracking capabilities.

SDA plans to field systems in batches every two years, with each iteration carrying the latest technology available. Although the first operational satellites known as Tranche 1 were slated to launch in fall 2024, that deadline has since been delayed to March or April 2025 due to supply chain bottlenecks, according to SDA Director Derek Tournear.

“I will say that what we’re seeing in the supply chain in the small LEO market has caught up to what SDA’s needs are, but it took them about eight months longer than they anticipated to ramp up,” Tournear said during a panel at the Reagan National Defense Forum. 

A total of 158 satellites are being developed for Tranche 1 of the PWSA: 126 data transport sats, 28 missile warning/missile tracking sats and four missile defense demonstration sats. The agency will also launch 12 tactical demonstration satellites under the Tranche 1 Demonstration and Experimentation System (T1DES) initiative to test new capabilities that can be leveraged in future PWSA tranches.

Across that order, four prime contractors are on the program — York Space Systems, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and L3Harris — and each of them is working with dozens of subcontractors.

Executives from various Tranche 1 primes who spoke to DefenseScoop acknowledged that they encountered supply chain bottlenecks in their work for the contract. Issues have now mostly been resolved and the vendors are on track to launch by the new deadline, they said.

However, companies are still using those lessons learned to mitigate setbacks for future tranches that go beyond just purchasing long-lead items.

“We’re seeing the results of that demand signal that SDA has been sending us on a very consistent basis through their spiral tranche acquisition. Is it perfect yet? No. We’ve got some places to go,” Rob Mitrevski, vice president and general manager of spectral solutions at L3Harris, said in an interview.

Tranche 1 isn’t the first time SDA has experienced delays. The agency was forced to push back the launch of Tranche 0 — a group of 27 satellites that served as a proof of concept for the entire PWSA — by about six months.

The holdup was attributed to supply chain bottlenecks that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic when many manufacturers were forced to slow or stop production lines. Specific microelectronic components such as resistors were particularly difficult to buy, Mitrevski noted.

The recent issues aren’t caused by COVID-19 conditions, but are instead reflective of the sheer volume of systems SDA is asking of its contractors and an industrial base that wasn’t quite ready to meet the increased demand.

“I think a lot of that has been just scaling — getting past designing tens of things to designing lots of things,” Louis Christen, senior director of proliferated systems at Northrop Grumman, said during a tour of the company’s Space Park facility in Redondo Beach, California, where it’s manufacturing Tranche 1 birds.

To alleviate potential risk, Northrop Grumman has been moving through production as much as possible and building multiple satellites in parallel, Christen said. Working very closely with its multiple subcontractors throughout the process has been another critical strategy.

“Although they’re commercial suppliers, we’re not just buying stuff from them. We’re a partner. We’re there on a daily basis and helping prop them up,” he said.

Dirk Wallinger, CEO and president of York Space Systems, said challenges the company had weren’t specific to its Tranche 1 contracts, but actually reflect a lack of diversity in the supply chain that is affecting the entire space industry. 

“One of the key bottlenecks results from [requests for proposals] with subsystem performance specifications that inadvertently narrow the qualified vendor pool to a single supplier,” Wallinger told DefenseScoop. “This limits the value tradeoffs of all of the prime contractors and by creating dependency on sole-source suppliers, exacerbates delays.”

Addressing the problem would require rethinking high-level performance requirements in a manner that would diversify the supplier base and enable more competition in industry, he added.

L3Harris is also trying to move away from single or sole-source suppliers by building strong relationships with the swath of subcontractors it has worked with on all three of its contracts for the PWSA, Mitrevski said.

“The supply chain works to create scale over time, and the scale is created through a diverse group of suppliers,” he said. “What you’ve seen in the way we’ve evolved from [Tranche 0] through now [Tranche 1] and [Tranche 2] is a continual improvement of the scale and diversity in that supply chain.”

Wallinger noted that they’ve found the most effective way to mitigate supply chain risks has been to buy satellite buses from providers ahead of receiving mission specifications. In the future, it’s crucial that the government secures these long-lead items as early as possible to effectively eliminate delays, he added.

“Schedule risk is mostly induced from bus component suppliers, not mission payload developers,” Wallinger said. “Commoditized satellite buses are the only ones being considered, and by definition can support a range of mission sets. They are the critical component to procure in advance.”

Mitigating future delays

While SDA has tried to ensure its system requirements can leverage readily available hardware, Tournear said there are some components that must be tailor-made for the Tranche 1 satellites. Mesh network encryption devices that are approved by the National Security Agency have been a significant headache because there’s only one manufacturer able to make them, he said.

The agency has adjusted its timeline expectations for future PWSA tranches to allow more time for vendors to build their platforms, adding several months to overall production time.

Mitrevski also noted that SDA’s overall strategy to fund development of capabilities that can be tested early on is beneficial. 

“They have a number of efforts where they’ve clearly acquired leading-edge capabilities with the intention of driving the maturity level of those leading-edge capabilities forward and then make use of them later on,” he said. 

York Space Systems has also discussed with SDA ways to mitigate risks outside of supply chain diversification, Wallinger said. One area of improvement could be ensuring long-lead items are aligned with current and future mission requirements, he noted.

“We have had several instances where the second- and third-tier suppliers had stock on hand, but that stock didn’t have the right interface protocols or didn’t have the right form factor, and couldn’t be used to meet the actual mission needs,” he said. “So you had those suppliers spending capital on things that simply had to be completely redone at a cost to the [U.S. government] and us.”

But with plans to only grow the number of military satellites on orbit — not just for the PWSA, but also other programs across the Defense Department — SDA’s work is likely going to create a ripple effect of both growth and demand within the industrial base. The supply chain woes are serving as a “canary in the coal mine” for the national security space community writ large, and will require the entire department’s effort to fix them, Guetlein said.

“Because of the quantities that he’s ordering, he’s now starting to uncover the challenges that we have with the industrial base,” Guetlein said, referring to Tournear. “And these challenges are significant, and we need to figure out how to get after them.”

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The organization released a request for information posted to Sam.gov on Friday. In a related announcement, SDA said it’s looking for input on its upcoming Tranche 3, which will “accelerate the proliferation of missile defense capability to provide low-latency fire control-quality data.” The agency plans to purchase around 54 platforms — or potentially more — from one or more vendors.

The new RFI is the first one published for Tranche 3 of SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), a planned constellation of hundreds of satellites that carry communications, data transport, and missile warning and tracking capabilities. The agency’s systems stationed in low-Earth orbit (LEO) are intended to be part of a larger, multi-orbit proliferated space architecture of missile warning and tracking capabilities — one of the Space Force’s top budget priorities.

The Tranche 3 tracking satellites will be equipped with infrared sensors and be launched across six orbital planes, according to SDA. The agency is targeting a launch date of no later than April 2029 for the first plane, according to a release.

Responses to the RFI are due July 29, after which the agency plans to publish a final request for proposal.

Iterating off of the previous two tranches, Tranche 3 will provide fire control-quality data for warfighters. Fire control systems are able to create high-fidelity tracking information for incoming threats that includes the exact position and time accuracy needed for a missile defense system to send an interceptor to defeat targets.

The satellites in PWSA’s tracking layer are a separate effort from SDA’s experimental Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter (FOO Fighter) program, which focuses on advancing next-generation fire-control capabilities for very specific threats.

In addition, the Tranche 3 tracking satellites will continue “to provide global, persistent indications, detection, warning, tracking, and identification of conventional and advanced missile threats, including hypersonic missile systems,” according to SDA. 

The first batch of 28 operational tracking satellites in Tranche 1 — built by Northrop Grumman and L3Harris — are scheduled to launch beginning in April 2025 and will offer “global mono coverage” for conventional missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles, an SDA fact sheet stated. 

Lockheed Martin, Sierra Space and L3Harris are contracted to develop satellites for Tranche 2, which will “complete near global stereo coverage” for missile warning and tracking missions while offering preliminary fire control capabilities, according to the fact sheet. The Tranche 2 satellites are scheduled to launch in 2027.

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SDA is charged with deploying the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) — envisioned as a constellation of satellites in low-Earth orbit that provide capabilities to U.S. military forces. The architecture represents a pivot at the Defense Department in its space strategy, which has historically relied on a few large, exquisite satellites stationed in high orbits to perform missions like GPS and satcom.

Now, the Pentagon wants to proliferate hundreds of small and inexpensive satellites in LEO to support military operations. But that strategy doesn’t immediately translate to the equipment on the ground that will operate the vehicles, according to Col. Kalliroi Landry, chief of the support cell at the Space Development Agency.

“SDA does not want to build a proliferated ground segment to support a proliferated space segment,” Landry said Tuesday during a luncheon hosted by AFCEA. “I think that’s where one of the best opportunities to tap into commercial services is.”

In 2022, the agency awarded General Dynamics a seven-year contract worth $324.5 million to build and operate a nascent ground infrastructure — including two operations centers and 14 ground stations — for its first operational batch of satellites known as Tranche 1. SDA also awarded General Dynamics another contract in 2023 to mature their Tranche 1 ground components to also be able to support Tranche 2.

One of those operations centers will be located at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, while the other will be in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Other ground infrastructure will be scattered both in the continental United States and in partner countries, including Norway.

Landry explained that the contract was necessary for the first tranche so the agency could create a “baseline capability.” Moving forward, however, there are a number of commercial companies that could also provide services, ground entry points or command-and-control capabilities for Tranche 2 and beyond, she said.

“As l am looking into Tranche 2, I don’t want to have a whole next round of ground entry points. It’s too much property, it’s too much equipment,” Landry said. “I shouldn’t have to take care of that when there are perfectly capable industry partners out there who are able to do it.”

Meanwhile, the agency is readying a solicitation for the PWSA Futures Program (PFP) Ground Segment Integration (PGI) program. The organization posted a draft solicitation in December for the effort, which aims to provide the “common, enduring ground infrastructure and resources” for the different experimental missions and demonstrations it’s planning for — including Transport Layer Tranche 2 Demonstration and Experimentation System (T2DES) and Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter (FOO Fighter).

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“That’s something that I’m really interested in, because I want to be able to take more risks on my satellites, not have redundant propulsion and things like that,” he said Monday during a keynote at the annual Satellite conference.

SDA is in charge of fielding the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) — a planned constellation that’s expected to include hundreds of satellites stationed in low-Earth orbit (LEO) that carry critical capabilities for warfighters. The agency wants to rapidly procure and field new tranches of platforms every two years, with each batch adding new capabilities and further growing the constellation.

Because of that business model, SDA hasn’t been interested in on-orbit maintenance and refueling capabilities that could extend the relatively short lifetime of the PWSA satellites — which is approximately five years. Rather, the less capable platforms will be quickly replaced by new tranches carrying new capabilities.

And while Tournear said that is still the case, he’s started looking at ways SDA could leverage satellite deorbiting services from the commercial sector in the future. 

“That’s a business model I’m really interested in. There are several companies that are working on that,” he said.

A satellite is deorbited — meaning, it is intentionally brought back down to Earth in a controlled manner — when it reaches the end of its operational lifespan or fails while in orbit. Some companies offer deorbiting as a service, such as by providing deorbiting modules that are attached to satellites prior to launch or by operating dedicated space vehicles that can deorbit failed systems. 

While Tournear didn’t specify which servicing options he is interested in, he emphasized that planning for early deorbiting when some of the PWSA platforms fail could help SDA save money.

“This can drive the cost down on my satellites and I can just say, ‘I know I’m going to have 10 percent fail on orbit.’ And I’ll just factor that into my price, that we’ll have to pay someone to remove 10 percent of my satellite constellation every year,” Tournear said.

Since completing the final launch for its demonstration tranche of spacecraft in February, SDA has been preparing to put the first operational batch of PWSA satellites into orbit. According to budget justification documents for fiscal 2025, the agency’s Tranche 1 transport layer and Tranche 1 missile-tracking layer will cost a total of $3 billion and $2.7 billion, respectively, for research and development and prototype procurement.

The satellites for Tranche 1 are scheduled to begin launching before the end of 2024 and will be operational before the end of 2025, Tournear said.

“By the end of next year, we’ll have 126 Link 16 satellites that are operational on orbit. We’ll have 28 of our wide field-of-view missile-tracking satellites operational and on orbit, and we’ll have four of the medium field-of-view satellites … operational on orbit,” he said. “That will make up our Tranche 1 operational system that we’ll be able to present to the warfighter next year.”

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Tournear wrote in a post published on LinkedIn on Thursday that he was recently told to no longer act as the “bad cop” for SDA or else he would hurt relationships with colleagues.

“The professional relationship I hold as my highest priority is the one between my agency and the warfighter. To deliver on my end of that relationship, we have no choice but to change,” Tournear wrote. “Change is hard; change is necessary. And nothing fights change like the paralyzing behavior of going along to get along.”

Tournear did not explicitly state the name of an individual or organization that might be criticizing him and SDA’s work. An SDA official told DefenseScoop that the post was prompted “by the everyday challenges one faces when trying to do things differently and accelerate the pace of delivery in a well-practiced bureaucracy.”

Established in 2019 and transitioned under the Space Force’s purview in 2022, the agency aims to streamline acquisitions of space capabilities in order to deploy new satellites and other tools as quickly as possible. SDA’s “spiral development” business model prioritizes rapid procurement of low-cost systems, with a goal to deliver new capabilities in multiple iterations so that warfighters have access to the latest technology and can easily pivot to new threats.

It’s a practice that is vastly different to the oft lengthy and bureaucratic processes historically used by the Defense Department to acquire new systems. Tournear noted in his post that space acquisitions have been guided by “very detailed capability – when it was ready.”

“SDA flips that paradigm to deliver what is ready on schedule—when the warfighter needs it. In this context, there have been more than a few times, when constructive disruption required someone to play the ‘bad cop,'” he wrote. 

The agency has moved relatively fast in terms of sending out solicitations, awarding contracts and deploying capabilities. Tournear highlighted in his post that while he is proud of the agency’s accomplishments, they didn’t come without challenges or “scars” caused by going against the grain of traditional acquisition practices.

Earlier this year, SDA held the first two successful launches for its constellation of satellites known as the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). The multi-layer configuration of satellites will sit in low-Earth orbit and provide critical data transport, missile warning and missile tracking capabilities for warfighters.

The first two launches were for the agency’s demonstration tranche, dubbed Tranche 0, which will consist of 27 satellites in total. The satellites were built by L3Harris, SpaceX, Lockheed Martin and York Space Systems.

The agency plans to begin launching Tranche 1, the first operational tranche of SDA satellites, in late 2024 and is targeting an aggressive monthly launch schedule. In 2022, York Space Systems, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman each received contracts worth a combined total of $1.8 billion to develop space vehicles for the Tranche 1 transport layer, while Northrop Grumman and L3Harris were tapped for a combined $1.3 billion to build satellites for Tranche 1’s missile tracking layer.

SDA has also begun soliciting and awarding contracts for Tranche 2, as well as for additional projects related to the PWSA and others completely separate from the constellation. 

Overall, Tournear and the agency have received praise for their work from high-level officials across the Defense Department. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall highlighted Tournear’s efforts in pursuing commercially available capabilities in April during the annual Space Symposium, while Pentagon acquisition chief William LaPlante recently pointed to the agency’s effective use of alternate acquisition strategies like other transaction authority and middle tier of acquisition approaches.

“Really watch that, because that is doing everything we’ve all said — go fast, use commercial, use all the authorities you have. They’re doing it,” LaPlante said in August during a panel at the NDIA Emerging Technologies for Defense conference and expo.

Still, the agency has not had a lack of critics in its short history. Former Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson fought hard against SDA’s creation during her tenure, some lawmakers and experts have questioned whether the organization creates confusion for the Space Force’s acquisition efforts, and others are still skeptical of the Pentagon’s shift to small, commercial satellites over traditional space systems.

“Although it’s not a role I relish, I cannot stand by and watch wasteful, thoughtless procedures that will only benefit our enemies by delaying delivery to the warfighter. Calling that out won’t always make friends, but it will make our nation stronger,” Tournear wrote. “If it’s what is needed for SDA to meet its mission and deliver for the warfighter, then I will continue to be a ‘Maverick,’ a ‘wild card,’ and a ‘bad cop’. I encourage all patriots to join with me as we arrest the status quo!”

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The systems are now scheduled to be launched Saturday with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This will be the second launch for Tranche 0. The previous one occurred in April, which saw the first 10 satellites go into orbit.

After the launch service provider scrubbed both the original launch attempt Thursday and the rescheduled one on Friday, the next opportunity for lift off will be Saturday, according to a post from SpaceX on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Ten of the satellites from the forthcoming launch will be data transport systems made by Lockheed Martin for the Tranche 0 transport later. The remaining three — including two from SpaceX and one from York Space Systems — are for missile warning and tracking. 

Tranche 0 is made up of demonstration satellites for SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), which is envisioned as a multi-layer configuration of hundreds of satellites in low-Earth orbit that offer new and augmented data transport and missile warning and tracking capabilities for the U.S. military.

“We’re looking to show that you can build out sort of a proliferated architecture that allows you to do things like tactical data links, beyond-line-of-sight targeting, and advanced missile detection and tracking,” Mike Eppolito, Tranche 0 program director, told reporters Wednesday ahead of launch. “Those are sort of the three core things that we’re looking to demonstrate on Tranche 0.”

The PWSA is considered a key piece to the Pentagon-wide effort known as Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2). The new warfighting concept aims to connect all of the services’ sensors and shooters under a single network, and the SDA’s satellites are intended to enable rapid collection and transfer of critical decision-making data.

Overall, Tranche 0 will include 27 satellites on orbit. Of those, 19 systems will be in the transport layer carrying optical communications terminals, and seven will also have the Link 16 tactical data link — a capability that will be demonstrated from space for the first time, Eppolito said.

The remaining eight missile warning and tracking satellites have wide-field-of-view sensors on them that will be able to spot missiles and keep tabs on them across a wide area, he added.

SDA originally planned for 28 spacecraft on orbit, but decided to keep one tracking satellite made by York Space Systems on the ground to serve as a testbed for future capabilities, Eppolito said. 

“We understand that software development and the applications that run on board are going to be a critical enabling element for PWSA. So, we believe that having that testbed on the ground will pay off for both the current tranche in terms of demonstrating things before we update the [space vehicles] on orbit,” he said. “It will also be used for future tranches in terms of learning on that satellite, which could then be applied to future tranches.”

While Tranche 0 was initially scheduled to just have two launches, SDA is now targeting a third launch in partnership with the Missile Defense Agency for the last set of four missile warning and tracking satellites made by L3Harris. A firm date has not been set, but the agency is looking to get the payloads on orbit before the end of 2023, Eppolito said.

The MDA is launching its own missile warning and tracking satellite made by L3Harris as part of the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor Program this year. Eppolito said there are advantages in launching and testing together because the payloads for MDA and SDA have different capabilities that can be used tangentially.

“The benefit of that will be that we’ll be able to see the same targets from both the MDA satellites and SDA satellites, demonstrating both the medium field-of-view and wide field-of-view tracking payloads all together on the same target,” he said.

The first 10 Tranche 0 systems already on orbit — which include eight data transport platforms manufactured by York Space Systems and two missile tracking platforms by SpaceX — have made it through checkout, but some are still working out kinks, Eppolito said. The tracking satellites have sent the first images collected from the payloads to ground stations, but the agency has run into some “policy issues” that are preventing them from conducting Link 16 tests, he said.

“From a technical standpoint, we’ve gotten through all the checkout leading up until that policy hurdle,” he said. “As soon as we get approval there, we plan to move forward with that checkout.”

Once all of Tranche 0 is in orbit and the concept proved, SDA plans to begin launching satellites that carry operational capabilities. The first Tranche 1 payloads are slated to fly in September 2024, and the agency hopes to stay on an aggressive launch schedule afterwards.

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“This is the first dedicated SDA launch. All of the satellites on the rocket tomorrow will be SDA satellites, and it’s the first launch of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture,” SDA Director Derek Tournear told reporters Wednesday.

Ten satellites will be launched from a SpaceX Falcon 9 reusable rocket Thursday at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, according to the SDA. Eight of those satellites are made by York Space Systems and will contribute to the Tranche 0 data transport layer. The two remaining satellites are from SpaceX and will be part of the agency’s Tranche 0 missile tracking layer.

The launch will help field the first capabilities in the SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), which is envisioned as a multi-layer configuration featuring hundreds of satellites and sensors. The agency plans to deploy new tranches of satellites proliferated in low-Earth orbit every two years that can incorporate new payloads with additional capabilities. 

In 2020, the agency awarded Lockheed Martin and York Space Systems contracts — worth $187.5 million and $94 million, respectively —  to each build a set of 10 satellites for the Tranche 0 transport layer. That same year, SDA awarded SpaceX $149 million and L3Harris $194 million to build four additional satellites each that would detect ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles in the Tranche 0 tracking layer.

Overall, Tranche 0 will include 28 satellites. Of those, 20 satellites will be in the transport layer that form a mesh satellite communications network and provide low-latency comms for warfighters, Tournear said. The other eight satellites will contribute to the tracking layer and perform advanced missile warning and missile tracking, he added.

The remaining 18 space vehicles in Tranche 0 will be launched in June, including two more satellites from York Space Systems, 10 from Lockheed Martin, two from SpaceX and four from L3Harris, according to the SDA. 

The two launches for Tranche 0 were initially scheduled for September 2022 and March 2023, but SDA was forced to push back the launches due to supply chain issues, Tournear said. 

The agency refers to Tranche 0 as its warfighter immersion tranche that will host demonstrations and help operators start understanding how to best use space-based capabilities in the future, said Mike Eppolito, program director for Tranche 0 at SDA. 

“We are demonstrating the core architecture that will evolve in future tranches,” Eppolito told reporters Wednesday. “The satellites that we have up there, the intent there is to get them in the warfighters hands so they can start developing their techniques and be able to use them, to give them a timeline to go through their training and to allow them to start thinking about how they would use the larger constellation once we have it on orbit.”

Demonstrations for Tranche 0 will begin once all 28 satellites are on orbit and have gone through a period of calibration.

“It will take single-digit weeks to get through tests and checkout of the satellites’ initialization and the initial calibration, and that’s when we can start to actually do the warfighter versions or participate in exercises and things like that,” Tournear said.

For the transport layer, warfighters will initially participate in a number of “lower-level exercises,” Tournear said. Most of those will involve testing how to connect space systems with terrestrial Link 16 radios for SATCOM — a brand new capability for the Pentagon — and then eventually they will begin participating in other exercises in the Indo-Pacific with the Marine Corps, he said.

As for the tracking layer satellites, test events featuring live U.S. missile systems, including hypersonic weapons, will begin in spring 2024, Tournear said.

Following Tranche 0, the SDA plans to continue forward with its plans to begin Tranche 1 — the agency’s first mission-capable constellation consisting of 128 satellites in the transport layer, 28 in the tracking layer and an additional 18 experimental satellites.

When asked by DefenseScoop about the schedule for Tranche 1, Tournear said the agency is still on track to begin launches in September 2024 and contractors are currently going through their critical design reviews.

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