SDA published a solicitation on Wednesday calling for “executive summaries” from vendors interested in performing 60-day studies focused on leveraging the PWSA and other capabilities into the “Iron Dome for America” — a sprawling effort to improve the United States’ defenses against advanced adversary missile threats. Trump’s executive order about the capabilities, issued Jan. 27, envisions a modernized, multilayer missile defense posture that would lean heavily on space-based systems, including the PWSA.

According to the solicitation, SDA is interested in executive summaries of “novel architecture concepts, systems, technologies, and capabilities” to accelerate future PWSA tranches or create new capability layers that would address other emerging requirements.

“SDA is soliciting executive summaries to study and provide recommendations for an Iron Dome for America architecture. These studies will inform SDA on concepts for such an architecture and how the PWSA could contribute,” the document stated.

Trump tasked Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to develop a strategy that includes “a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements and an implementation plan” and deliver it to the president by March 28.

While the directive calls for development of new space-based interceptors, it also pushes for expediting ongoing efforts — including “development and deployment of a custody later of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture,” the EO states.

The PWSA is a planned mega-constellation comprising hundreds of satellites stationed in low-Earth orbit, with a transport layer for data relay and communications payloads and a tracking layer for missile warning and tracking sensors. The program is led by SDA, which intends to launch the satellites every two years in “tranches.”

Trump’s executive order gives the agency the green light to develop and deploy a custody layer within the PWSA architecture. Whereas tracking sensors focus on detecting potential missile threats to provide early warning, a custody layer maintains continuous surveillance on specific targets for “left-of-launch” missile defense.

Some of the agency’s ongoing efforts are already developing custody layer capabilities, such as the experimental Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter (FOO Fighter) program and the Gamma variant of SDA’s Tranche 2 Transport Layer. But the new call to industry goes a step further by asking for “opportunities to accelerate technically mature and novel phenomenologies into the PWSA Custody Layer and Tracking Layer.”

The solicitation also seeks input on ways to fast-track Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) capabilities into the PWSA’s tracking layer, referring to sensors deployed on a constellation of demonstration satellites developed by the Missile Defense Agency that launched last year.

SDA has since decided to adopt the same types of sensors — which use high-fidelity, medium-field-of-view cameras suited for sending targeting data to interceptors — in some of its tracking layer payloads. 

Meanwhile, MDA published its own request for information last month that similarly sought industry feedback as to how it could contribute to Trump’s Iron Dome for America. The document asked industry to provide details on “new system-level capabilities, component concepts, upgrades to existing capabilities, or new [concepts of operations] across the kill chain” that could be delivered or demonstrated in two-year time periods, beginning no later than the end of 2026.

MDA’s RFI points to lines of effort outlined in Trump’s executive order, including acceleration and deployment of HBTSS. It does not, however, specify whether that would mean a follow-on program to operationalize the constellation or development of new medium-field-of-view cameras that would deploy on other satellites.

During a posture hearing in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, head of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command Gen. Gregory Guillot underscored HBTSS as a key system for accurately tracking hypersonic missiles.

“We have some capability already that can detect intercontinental ballistic missiles, but those are fairly easy to track because of the ballistic profile,” Guillot said. “Whereas the hypersonics are both maneuverable and much faster, so getting the space-based capability to detect and track those that could cue defeat mechanisms in the end is imperative.”

SDA’s call to industry also outlines six other potential topics for the 60-day study: high-fidelity modeling, simulation and analysis capabilities; optimization of the PWSA’s transport layer in supporting missile defense; supply chain analysis; space and ground architectures; on-orbit sensor data processing, multi-sensor track fusion and low-latency dissemination; and software solutions to enable autonomous satellite operations.

According to the solicitation, the agency is considering awarding multiple vendors to conduct studies and “strongly encourages” submissions to be delivered no later than Feb. 28.

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SDA is charged with development of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), a planned mega-constellation comprising hundreds of data relay, missile warning and missile tracking satellites stationed in low-Earth orbit.

The department first announced Jan. 16 that SDA head Derek Tournear had been placed on administrative leave pending the results of an ongoing investigation. At the time, officials placed Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, currently serving as commander of the Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC), in charge of the agency on a temporary basis.

“Given the importance of space acquisition programs, both the Space Development Agency and Space Systems Command require full-time leadership, and the Department of the Air Force has named Mr. Blauser as SDA’s new acting director,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

The decision to place Tournear on administrative leave came from then-Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration Frank Calvelli. Although the DAF has not commented on the specific nature for the investigation, Breaking Defense reported that Tournear allegedly did not follow appropriate contracting procedures ahead of SDA’s award for the Gamma variant of the Space Force’s Tranche 2 Transport Layer in August.

Blauser has been serving as the deputy director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office since July 2024, where he oversees the service’s study, development and fielding activities for a range of emerging technologies.

Prior to his current role, he has held numerous acquisition and leadership positions within government — including at the National Reconnaissance Office, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and U.S. Special Operations Command. Blauser also has previous experience working in the defense industry.

Blauser will now lead SDA during the highly anticipated launch of the first operational batch of PWSA space vehicles — slated for sometime in March or April of this year — while it continues to contract for future tranches.

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Under the directive, titled “Iron Dome for America,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is required to develop “a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements and an implementation plan” to address emerging aerial threats against the U.S. homeland. The strategy, due to the president in the next 60 days, must focus on defense against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles and other aerial platforms.

“Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons has become more intense and complex with the development by peer and near-peer adversaries of next-generation delivery systems and their own homeland integrated air and missile defense capabilities,” the EO states.

The directive comes after Trump promised to create a “great Iron Dome shield” over the United States in June during his presidential campaign, referencing the Israeli air defense system built by Rafael. While Israel’s capability is designed to intercept short-range rockets and artillery, it’s clear that Trump’s vision for America’s own Iron Dome shield considers a greater range of threats and technologies.

Notably, the order calls for development and deployment of “proliferated space-based interceptors” stationed on orbit that can defeat ballistic missiles during the boost stage of flight.

The inclusion of space-based interceptors will likely be a source of contention in the executive order’s execution, Todd Harrison, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told DefenseScoop. Fielding such weapons has been a controversial matter that was floated by the first Trump administration in 2018, but did not receive traction during President Joe Biden’s term.

The concept for space-based interceptors was a centerpiece of President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative in the 1980s, which was abandoned due to technological immaturity and expensive price tags at the time. Critics referred to it derisively as a “Star Wars” project. But the cost of putting satellites on orbit has reduced drastically in recent years, largely due to advancements made by Elon Musk’s SpaceX business.

“When Ronald Reagan wanted to do it many years ago, luckily we didn’t. We didn’t have the technology then. It was a concept but we didn’t have” sufficient tech, Trump said Monday evening during remarks to lawmakers at his Trump National Doral resort in Miami. “Now we have phenomenal technology. You see that with Israel, where out of 319 rockets [launched against them] they knocked down just about every one of them. So I think the United States is entitled to that. And everything will be made right here in the USA, 100 percent.”

However, there are still technological limitations to the weapons that require additional study and analysis before the Pentagon can field them at scale, Harrison said.

“If you have a system that’s designed so that there’s always at least one interceptor within range, you could shoot down any one missile. But if someone launches a salvo of two missiles, the second will get through,” he said. “You would have to double the size of your constellation in order to shoot down two at once, and you would have to quadruple it to shoot down four at once. So it quickly becomes cost prohibitive the way it scales.”

Space-based interceptors would be ideal for threats posed by Iran or North Korea, neither of which currently have significant numbers of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). But against nations with larger ICBM arsenals like China and Russia — considered by the Defense Department as the United States’ most pressing military adversaries — the weapons aren’t as effective, Harrison added.

Given the growing importance of space as a warfighting domain, however, kinetic and non-kinetic space-based weapons will become more common in missile defense solutions, according to Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

“It’s not necessarily going to be 10,000 things, it may be more limited,” Karako told DefenseScoop. “But the genie is out of the bottle. The past paradigms of strategic stability have kind of vaporized and vanished before our eyes over the last decade … The world has changed, and we’re going to have to change with it.”

Trump’s executive order prioritizes several ongoing space-based missile defense programs, as well. It calls for “acceleration of the deployment” of the Missile Defense Agency’s demonstration Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor Layer (HBTSS) satellites.

The directive also tasks the Space Development Agency to develop a custody layer within its Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), a planned mega-constellation comprising hundreds of satellites carrying data relay, missile warning and missile tracking capabilities.

Harrison noted that SDA had previously considered incorporating a custody layer into its architecture as part of future tranches, and Trump’s order now gives the agency the green light to move forward.

A deployed custody layer, which continuously tracks and keeps eyes on enemy missile threats, would also contribute to the EO’s directive to deploy capabilities that can defeat missile attacks prior to launch, he added.

“Previously, they planned to just use other people’s systems and make kind of a virtual custody layer,” Harrison said. “I think that’s one of the biggest changes here, is they’re giving [SDA] the go-ahead for that.”

Space-based capabilities aren’t the only elements of Trump’s directive, as the executive order calls for “deployment of underlayer and terminal-phase intercept capabilities postured to defeat a countervalue attack.” That would likely mean bolstering the United States’ arsenal of ground-based interceptors with additional systems already available.

“The foundation for an Iron Dome for America needs to start with air and cruise missile defense,” Karako said. “That’s our biggest gap area. That’s our biggest, near-term vulnerability that we have very little capability against, and so we need to get after that.”

After submitting his plan for homeland missile defense to the White House, Hegseth has been tasked to conduct a subsequent review of theater missile defense postures. Per Trump’s executive order, the follow-on should include options for protecting forward-deployed troops; accelerating provisions of missile defenses capabilities to allies and partners; and increasing international cooperation on relevant technology development, capabilities and operations.

A large question for the Defense Department as it carries out its review will be the cost of developing and deploying such a large missile defense architecture. The order requires an accompanying funding plan that can be examined and included in the upcoming budget request for fiscal 2026, but the EO offers no insight into how much the Pentagon would have to spend.

Some previous cost estimates for a large-scale architecture with space-based interceptors have been upwards of $100 billion, although others have said it could be built for a fraction of that amount.

Harrison estimated the missile defense efforts outlined by Trump would require substantial long-term investment, likely costing billions of dollars per year over at least the next decade.

“That impacts the question of, are they going to request more defense funding overall or will this come at the expense of something else within the defense budget? It’s not clear, because the administration has not been all that forthcoming about their plans for the defense budget overall,” he said.

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As part of the HALO pool of pre-approved vendors, the selected businesses will now be able to compete for demonstrations and experimentation task orders that will support future tranches of SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). Each company has received an other transaction agreement (OTA) with an initial $20,000 to compensate for administrative and other expenses, according to the agency.

HALO task orders will focus on “rapid end-to-end mission demonstrations with launch of two identical satellites 12-18 months after award,” according to SDA.

The first prototype orders for HALO will be for the Tranche 2 Demonstration and Experimentation System (T2DES) project — intended to augment the Tranche 2 transport layer of communications and data relay satellites by demonstrating proliferation of future tactical data links and optical communications missions.

“Through HALO, SDA has an even faster and more flexible contracting mechanism in place to compete and award T2DES and other SDA demonstration projects,” SDA Director Derek Tournear said in a statement. “We believe HALO will also increase the pool of performers capable of bidding on future SDA programs, including participation in layers of future tranches.”

The PWSA is expected to comprise hundreds of satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO) that carry critical warfighting capabilities for data transport and missile defense missions. SDA is fielding the constellation in tranches. It plans to launch the first operational batch of satellites in early 2025, with each subsequent tranche going on orbit every other year.

The agency is also leveraging the PWSA to test out emerging capabilities on orbit through a range of experimental projects, including T2DES and the Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter (FOO Fighter) program, among others.

Although SDA has not shied away from giving contracts to defense space newcomers, many of the awards for the PWSA have gone to well-known players like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. On the other hand, HALO looks to open doors for non-traditional and commercial companies to work with the agency and mature their technologies.

The companies chosen for the initial HALO vendor pool are: Airbus U.S. Space & Defense; Apex Technology; ST Space Mobile USA; Astro Digital; Capella Space; CesiumAstro; Firefly Aerospace; Geneva Technologies; Impulse Space; Kepler Communications; Kuiper Government Solutions; LeoStella; Momentus Space; Muon Space; NovaWurks; SpaceX; Turion Space; Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems; and York Space Systems.

Only firms that have been selected to participate in the vendor pool will be able to compete for the prototyping efforts under HALO. SDA expects to award multiple contracts each year for the effort and will review the pool periodically, according to the agency.

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According to a recent notice to industry posted on Sam.gov, SDA intends to release the first draft solicitations for Tranche 3 of the PWSA’s tracking and transport layers in early 2025. Those satellites — slated to begin launching in 2028 — are expected to provide advancements in capabilities from previous tranches, as well as feature new warfighting applications.

An SDA spokesperson confirmed that approximately 200 satellites will make up Tranche 3 of the PWSA. The constellation is being developed and fielded in batches or “tranches,” and it’s expected to eventually comprise hundreds of space vehicles in low-Earth orbit that carry critical technologies for data transport and missile defense missions.

The Tranche 3 transport layer is being divided into three separate variants — Upsilon, Sigma and Lambda — that each have slightly different capabilities, the same strategy SDA used to develop transport satellites for Tranche 2’s transport layer. The agency expects to issue up to two awards for each variant, according to the notice.

A draft solicitation for the Upsilon variant is slated be published in early 2025, and those for the Sigma and Lambda variants are to be released in the spring and summer of 2025, respectively. The final solicitation for the Upsilon and Sigma variants are anticipated to be released during the third quarter of fiscal 2025, followed by the final Lambda solicitation in the fourth quarter of FY ’25.

Because solicitations are still being finalized, the agency could not provide details as to what specific capabilities will be in each variant. However, the notice stated that Tranche 3 transport satellites will support “the advancement of the PWSA’s Tracking capabilities by adding capacity and robustness to the global mesh network.” 

SDA will also build out the PWSA’s ability to conduct position, navigation and timing (PNT) in Tranche 3, according to the notice. While transport satellites in the first and second batches are expected to deliver initial PNT capabilities, the third tranche will feature enhancements in time transfer and ranging technologies, the SDA spokesperson told DefenseScoop.

As for the Tranche 3 tracking layer, the agency plans to release a draft solicitation in the spring of 2025 and the final version in the summer, according to the notice. SDA previously published a request for information in July that sought industry feedback on its plans for the third tracking layer, which will include systems that are equipped with infrared sensors and able to provide warfighters with fire control-quality data.

At the same time, the notice indicated that SDA is considering development of a PWSA Enterprise Ground effort, although it didn’t provide specific details or timelines for when solicitations might be published.

The notice to industry for Tranche 3 came after the agency decided to adjust its acquisition strategy for the PWSA to allow more time for vendors to build their platforms. In September, SDA Director Derek Tournear said previous contracts required industry to have systems ready to launch within two-and-a-half years of the contract date, but the agency has since extended that to three years.

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Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems — a Terran Orbital company based in Irvine, California — is one of two contractors selected to build Gamma variant platforms for tranche two of the data transport layer of the Pentagon’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), the agency announced Friday.

Tyvak was awarded a prototype agreement with a total value of approximately $254 million to build and operate 10 platforms, according to a release.

Denver-based York Space Systems, which was already doing prime vendor work for the agency, was also awarded a prototype agreement with a total value of about $170 million to build and operate 10 satellites.

Launches are slated to begin in late fiscal 2027.

SDA is once again using other transaction authority to get companies on contract. It received eight bids for the tranche two gamma variant before picking the winners, according to the agency.

“With these T2TL – Gamma awards, we are closing out the hardware procurement phase for Tranche 2 of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture to support delivery beginning in 2026 to achieve our full warfighting capability,” SDA Director Derek Tournear said in a statement. “The T2TL – Gamma space vehicles will demonstrate global communications access and operationalize persistent global encrypted connectivity to support missions like beyond line of sight targeting.”

The PWSA is expected to eventually include hundreds of satellites stationed in low-Earth orbit. SDA is deploying them in successive batches known as tranches. The architecture includes a data transport layer and a missile warning and missile-tracking layer.

The architecture is a key component of the Pentagon’s future warfighting construct known as Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2), a departmentwide effort to better connect the data streams, sensors and shooters of the U.S. military services and key allies and partners under a more unified, fast-moving network.

The data layer will comprise satellites across three different configurations called Alpha, Beta and Gamma, respectively, that have common baseline mission payloads but provide different capabilities. According to a solicitation issued earlier this year, the Gamma variants will be uniquely equipped with the secretive Warlock mission payload that is “specifically designed to close future kill chains.”

SDA previously awarded contracts to Northrop Grumman and York Space Systems for the Alpha variants of tranche two, and to Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Rocket Lab National Security for the Beta variants.

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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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In late 2023, the agency initiated contracting efforts for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture Future Program (PFP) Ground Segment Integration (PGI) program — intended to provide ground infrastructure and resources for a range of experimental missions on orbit. After receiving feedback from industry, SDA has modified the program’s scope to concentrate on ground support for the Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter (FOO Fighter) satellites and other fire-control satellites.

Speaking to a small group of reporters Friday, Tournear explained that officials decided to change the PGI program because the initial requirements for the effort were too broad for industry to execute.

“It would have been very difficult for us to scope in a way that a vendor could properly bid,” he said. “If we wanted them to bid the ground support for everything from a small CubeSat-type demo that could have extremely high classification requirements, to something that was very open but a larger satellite, such as FOO Fighter, the requirements were significantly different.”

Now, the agency plans to award two separate contracts for fire-control ground infrastructure: the Advanced Fire Control Ground Integration (AFCGI) and the Advanced Fire Control Mission Integrator (AFCMI).

The vendor contracted for the AFCGI effort will be responsible for building out the developmental operations center at Redstone Arsenal, where they will provide the ground infrastructure, cloud hosting capabilities and IT resources for the ground entry points of the fire-control satellites, Tournear said.

At the same time, the AFCMI contract will include capabilities to fuse data from FOO Fighter and other fire-control satellites so that it can be passed off to warfighters, he noted.

“We were getting feedback from a lot of different vendors that the skill sets were significantly different enough that we would not be getting the best of breed if we mixed them together and essentially forced them to do different teaming agreements,” Tournear said. “They would make compromises on [things like], to get the best mission integrator they might not have the best ground integrator, or vice versa.”

SDA will post a notice to industry Friday detailing the restructuring, Tournear said. An official request for proposals for AFCGI is slated to be posted by mid-June, followed by a second RFP for AFCMI by the end of the summer.

The agency plans to award contracts for the effort starting in December, with the intention to have all of the necessary ground infrastructure and mission integration capabilities in place by summer of 2026.

SDA awarded Boeing-subsidiary Millennium Space Systems a $414 million contract in April to build eight satellites for the FOO Fighter program. The small constellation is intended to demonstrate next-generation fire-control capabilities — using sensors to create high-fidelity tracking data of advanced missile threats, such as hypersonic weapons, that includes the exact position and time accuracy needed to intercept and defeat them.

Because it is an on-orbit experimental program, the satellites are not directly part of SDA’s upcoming mega-constellation of missile tracking and data relay satellites known as the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). The agency is currently targeting a launch date in the first quarter of fiscal 2027 for FOO Fighter.

As for the other demonstrations planned for the PFP effort that are not related to fire-control, the prime contractors will be responsible for supporting ground infrastructure and integration efforts moving forward, Tournear said. Upcoming contracts for these programs — like the Transport Layer Tranche 2 Demonstration and Experimentation System (T2DES) effort — will include additional ground support requirements, he noted.

“The ground efforts for those, we will treat more as experiments and we will have that be part of the scope for the space vehicle vendors themselves,” he explained. “Anything that is part of the PFP program that is very experimental by nature, the ground and operations will be done by the space vehicle vendors.”

The agency will have to modify some of the contracts already awarded, such as those to York Space Systems for the Tranche 1 Demonstration and Experimentation System (T1DES) program and Ball Aerospace for the National Defense Space Architecture Experimental Testbed (NExT) satellites. Tournear noted that SDA is already in discussions with both vendors to do so.

“They’re not significant changes, as the programs were already going to incorporate a good portion of the ground,” he said. “But as mentioned, since they’ll be providing their own ground entry points there will be some modifications.”

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The agency awarded the Boeing subsidiary an other transaction authority contract worth up to $414 million to build and deliver the platforms, which will be part of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture’s (PWSA) Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter (FOO Fighter) program. The constellation is slated to be launched into orbit during the first quarter of fiscal 2027.

The satellites will be different from other vehicles in the PWSA’s tracking layer, in that they will be equipped with fire control-quality sensors to address advanced missile threats such as hypersonic weapons.

“The FOO Fighter program will provide an operational demonstration of fire control efforts separate from, but complementary to, our missile warning/missile tracking and missile defense efforts already underway in the tranches,” SDA Director Derek Tournear said in a statement. “We look forward to working with Millennium, a new teammate in the expanding marketplace of performers innovating to deliver the PWSA for the warfighter.”

Fire control systems are able to create high-fidelity tracking data of incoming threats that includes the exact position and time accuracy needed for a missile defense system to send an interceptor to defeat targets. Incorporating fire control-capable sensors is part of the Space Force’s larger plan to deploy a robust, multi-orbit missile defense architecture in space.

FOO Fighter will be include experimental and demonstration satellites that are independent from the PWSA tracking layer — part of a planned constellation of hundreds of platforms stationed in low-Earth orbit. Tournear has previously indicated that FOO Fighter will address very specific targets not addressed by the PWSA.

Although the initial request for proposals for the vehicles suggested that SDA was open to contracting with more than one vendor for FOO Fighter, Millennium Space Systems will build and deliver all eight satellites. The company will also provide the supporting ground system and perform mission operations, according to a press release from the contractor. 

“Our deep knowledge and understanding of this mission enabled us to engineer the right solution at the right cost, taking advantage of our common sensing vehicle and core components,” CEO Jason Kim said in a statement. “The mission engineering we’ve done is grounded in modeling and simulation exercises, allowing us to understand the payload and its applicability to mission execution.”

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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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