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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The $1.2 billion other transaction agreement from Space Systems Command (SSC) is for Epoch 2 of the Resilient Missile Warning and Missile Tracking – MEO (MEO MW/MT) program. The constellation is intended to track high-speed missiles from MEO and is part of the service’s broader plans to build a resilient architecture of satellites that can detect missiles from multiple orbits — as well as contribute to President Donald Trump’s homeland missile defense effort known as Golden Dome. 

“Epoch 2 is in alignment with the Chief of Space Operation’s top priority to provide accurate real-time information to decision-makers. This allows for additional resiliency in the missile warning and tracking satellite architecture” Lt. Col. Brandon Castillo, materiel leader for the Epoch 2 program office, said in a statement.

SSC intends to develop and launch the MEO MW/MT constellation in phases known as “epochs” that will be delivered every two to three years, with each iteration featuring improved capabilities from previous increments. According to the service, Epoch 2 satellites will include more mature sensors, optical crosslinks, data fusion, mission management and ground communication capabilities.

The contract with BAE Systems comes after the Space Force was forced to delay awarding Epoch 2 by about three months due to the federal government operating under a continuing resolution and resulting budget uncertainty. Despite the delay, the company is expected to deliver the 10 satellites for Epoch 2 — expected to provide initial operational capability to warfighters — in fiscal 2029, according to SSC.

In 2023, the service awarded RTX and Boeing-subsidiary Millennium Space Systems contracts to each build space vehicles for Epoch 1 of the MEO MW/MT constellation, with RTX responsible for three satellites and Millennium responsible for six. However, RTX was removed from the program the following year due to design performance issues and cost overruns.

SSC later tapped Millennium to deliver six more satellites for Epoch 1 to replace RTX’s space vehicles. Delivery of the first Epoch 1 birds is expected during fiscal 2026, according to the service.

The new MEO constellation is being developed at the same time as the Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), which will comprise hundreds of missile warning and missile-tracking satellites stationed in low-Earth orbit (LEO). SSC is working closely with SDA and the Missile Defense Agency through a “combined program office approach” to execute the effort, according to the Space Force.

“Delivering these critical Missile Warning and Tracking capabilities on rapid timelines in a collaborative approach with MDA and SDA is a big win for the Nation and our joint forces,” Maj. Michael DiMuzio, program element monitor and assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration, said in a statement.

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Troy Meink — who worked at the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) prior to his nomination — also told lawmakers that the department must move faster on innovating new technologies, while also improving acquisition processes for onboarding new capabilities.

“One of the first things I plan to do is take a holistic look at all the modernization and all the readiness bills that we have coming. And then I will put together and advocate for what resources I think are necessary to execute all of those missions,” Meink said Thursday during his confirmation hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Both during his testimony and in responses to advance policy questions prior to the hearing, Meink emphasized that the Air Force is at an inflection point as it works to upgrade key systems and capabilities across all of its core mission areas.

The service is responsible for modernizing two legs of the nuclear triad with its new B-21 Raider stealth bomber and its replacement for the aging Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile system known as the LGM-35A Sentinel. Other high-cost efforts include the Air Force’s next-generation fighter platforms — such as the F-47 and Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones — new command-and-control capabilities and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems.

Managing those efforts with ongoing readiness and maintenance requirements would be his top priority — and a significant challenge — if confirmed, Meink told lawmakers.

“We also need to balance today’s requirements with the need to modernize and maintain future readiness, deterrence and lethality,” Meink wrote in his written responses to lawmakers’ questions. “Manage short-term risk to readiness to modernize and prepare our forces for mid-to-long term and enduring strategic missions as well as acute and persistent threats.”

Meink also pledged to improve the Air Force’s ability to innovate on new technologies for warfighters, adding that his previous experience at the NRO and in other leadership positions at the Pentagon would help him do so.

“I spent the last decade increasing competition and expanding the industry base, which has significantly accelerated delivery capability and at a lower cost. I intend to bring that same drive for innovation to the department,” he said.

Prior to being tapped by Trump in January to serve as the next secretary of the Air Force, Meink spent four years as principal deputy director of the NRO — the spy agency responsible for intelligence space systems. He was also previously the organization’s director of geospatial intelligence systems and held numerous other positions focused on the space domain.

Meink said growing the Space Force would be among his top priorities if he’s confirmed.

“Space is critical. This is actually one of the areas that we’re most challenged, I believe,” Meink said in response to questions from Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb. “From the rapidly evolving threat from China and others — both the direct threat to our systems, as well as the threat those systems pose to operations across the department in general.”

However, Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., probed Meink on rumors that the Space Development Agency (SDA) is planning to cancel contracts for Tranche 2 and Tranche 3 of the transport layer in the Proliferated Space Warfighter Architecture (PWSA) and instead award a sole-source contract to SpaceX for its Starshield capability. Cramer added that, if true, such plans would mean at least eight mid-sized space vendors would not be allowed to bid on the contracts.

Meink’s alleged ties to Elon Musk’s SpaceX have come under scrutiny in recent weeks, but the nominee claimed that he was unaware of any considerations to replacing current contracts with Starshield but would investigate them if he’s confirmed.

Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and York Space Systems are on contract to build some of the satellites under the Tranche 2 transport layer, while a separate contract previously awarded to York and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems is being re-competed following a protest bid. The agency is currently gearing up to formally begin bidding for Tranche 3 of the transport layer this year.

“One of the things that I’ve pushed for — particularly over the last 10 years — is to expand competition and expand the industry base,” Meink said. “That ends up almost always with the best result, both from capability and cost to the government.”

In a statement to DefenseScoop, a Department of the Air Force spokesperson said the department and the Space Force are working with the Office of the Secretary of Defense to review all acquisition programs under the fiscal 2026 budget process, and that no decision has been made regarding Tranche 2 and Tranche 3 of the transport layer.

“The DAF and [Space Force] are committed to the efficient use of taxpayer dollars and maximizing the delivery of capability to the joint warfighter,” the spokesperson said. “We look forward to sharing the status of our acquisition programs with our stakeholders in Congress and elsewhere when the FY26 budget is delivered in the coming months.”

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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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Under the “Iron Dome for America” executive order published in January, Trump has tasked Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to create a plan to field a multi-layered missile defense architecture for the U.S. homeland. Given how heavily the directive leans on space-based systems, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said the Space Force will likely have a “central role” in the architecture’s development.

“We are leaning forward establishing this technical IPT to start thinking about it from an overarching perspective,” Saltzman told reporters Monday.

With only a few weeks to develop a strategy and deliver it to the president, the Space Force’s new technical integrated planning team (IPT) is currently analyzing technological maturity, cost estimates and capability gaps of space systems that could be part of the architecture.

“What they’re going to do is pull it together and make sure everybody has got eyes wide open before they start saying, ‘Initiate a program here,’” a senior Space Force official said Monday during a background briefing with reporters. “It’s more of a data collection [of] what do we know, and identify what we know we don’t know.”

The directive calls attention to several ongoing space-based missile defense programs — such as sensors onboard the Missile Defense Agency’s Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor Layer (HBTSS) satellites and the Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) tracking layer. Both the MDA and SDA have released respective requests for information that ask for industry feedback on possible space-based capabilities for the Iron Dome for America architecture.

The Space Force official noted that the specificity of the Iron Dome for America directive has been helpful for the IPT as they conduct their analysis.

“What that allows us to do is say, ‘Hey, which of the programs that we already have either in place or in development directly support these requirements?’ And these become high priority, obviously, because they came out in an executive order,” the official said. “Then you do a quick gap analysis — what don’t we have [in] capability or what is so far left in terms of tech readiness?”

At the same time, Trump’s EO calls for deployment of “proliferated space-based interceptors,” a new capability that would be able to defeat enemy ballistic missiles during their boost stage of flight. The Space Force official admitted that they weren’t confident of how far along the Space Force or other organizations are in development of the technology, but added it would likely require more time to develop and field.

“One of the worst things to do is bite off a technical challenge that you can’t solve in a reasonable cost frame [and] a reasonable timeframe,” the official said. “And so we’ll be very forthright with … where we think the technology stands at this juncture. I think we’ve got some research that would give us some indications.”

The Space Force official noted that several organizations — such as the Air Force Research Lab, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Strategic Capabilities Office and others — are conducting research on future capabilities and their technical feasibility.

“That’s why we call it a technical IPT, because it is a search for what technologies are out there,” they said. “What’s required, and where are we in the levels of their readiness? Can we pull it together in a reasonable time frame? That is exactly what’s going on.”

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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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The technology suite, dubbed Otter, was launched Jan. 14 via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the Navy said in a news release Friday.

The platform’s primary payload has “space-based maritime domain awareness capabilities.” The secondary payloads — an X-band transmitter and an LED on-orbit payload (LOOP) — will “help the government evaluate communication technologies and concepts of operations on future CubeSat missions,” according to the release.

The vehicle will be operated by Naval Postgraduate School faculty and students on behalf of the National Reconnaissance Office, via the Mobile CubeSat Command and Control network.

NRO is one of the United States’ premier spy agencies when it comes using satellites for intelligence purposes. President Donald Trump has nominated Troy Meink, one of the office’s senior leaders, to serve as the next secretary of the Air Force.

“The NRO is always looking for innovative ways to advance our capabilities in space,” Aaron Weiner, director of the organization’s advanced systems and technology directorate, stated in the release. “This demonstrator … showcases the value in rapidly qualifying low-cost, commercial off-the-shelf hardware.”

New Zealand’s Defence Science and Technology organization is also a partner in the project.

The Otter effort comes as the Pentagon and intelligence community are embracing the concept of putting relatively inexpensive platforms and proliferated satellite architectures into LEO to improve resiliency and reduce latency, among other benefits. For example, the Space Development Agency is working to build out a massive constellation, known as the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), for data transport and missile tracking.

“One of the things we’re excited about when you look at taking satellite communications from [geostationary orbit] all the way down to LEO and not GEO, [is] you’re able to … decrease latency, increase throughput,” Mike Dean, director for command, control and communications infrastructure in the office of the DOD Chief Information Officer, said Thursday during a panel at the Potomac Officers Club’s annual Defense R&D Summit in Northern Virginia, noting that the Pentagon is about to kick off a new study focused on non-terrestrial networks and protocols.

The Navy is also looking to improve its SATCOM and networking capabilities.

“When you look at 5G and Navy, a big part of this becomes, what’s the base component? … And for us it’s about that high data rate, high speed, large bandwidth capability. So as you start to look at those applications that we’re working on in the future, what would that be when you’re looking at the afloat? It’s that satellite communications to improve the bandwidth and connectivity to our strike groups at sea. That’s huge,” Scott St. Pierre, the service’s director for enterprise networks and cybersecurity, said during Thursday’s panel.

“Afloat [command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting], long-range fires — those are big data capabilities that we need to move data fast. We want to get it up to the satellite, down to an analysis station, [and] back up to the satellite with the results of what we’re looking at,” he added.

The Otter technology, an experimental system that’s not currently part of the PWSA, is intended to “add sensors in the space layer to be able to see what’s going on in the water,” Wenschel Lan, interim chair of the Naval Postgraduate School’s Space Systems Academic Group, stated in Friday’s release. “It’s not just a camera, but a lot of different phenomenologies that you can sense from space to then help paint the picture of what’s going on.”

The X-band transmitter “is ideal for space communications optimized for data-intensive payloads,” according to the release.

The Otter project is also envisioned as a risk-reduction effort that could smooth the way for future Pentagon satellite programs and give personnel important know-how.

“We’re spending a small amount of money to buy down the risks so that when they actually do a full program of record, they’re not going into it blind,” Lan added, noting that the initiative will also give NPS students direct experience with space missions and make them “better prepared to serve as Space professionals in the Navy, throughout the DOD, and beyond.”

Otter isn’t NRO’s and NPS’ first rodeo when it comes to collaboration on satellite projects. Last year, they launched a CubeSat called Mola that also carried an X-band transmitter and LOOP technology, according to the release.

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