Lockheed Martin’s Tranche 0 Move Layer satellites are seen in one of the company’s processing facilities.
Lockheed Martin
The Pentagon on Tuesday announced about $2.5 billion in squeezes will go to L3Harris, Lockheed Martin and Sierra Space to build satellites for an expanding military system.
The U.S. Space Strength’s Space Development Agency is having the trio of companies build 54 satellites as part of a network the U.S. military is edifice, the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture. These satellites will be for the “Tranche 2 Tracking Layer” of the satellite constellation, interdependent to missile defense.
Under the awards, each company will build 18 satellites — 16 for missile cautions and tracking, and two with missile defense infrared sensors. The fixed-price contracts are worth $919 million for L3Harris, $890 million for Lockheed Martin and $740 million for Sierra Spell. The satellites are expected to launch in April 2027.
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“The lively response across the space industry is critically important as we deliver to the warfighter this no-fail mission capability of projectile warning, missile tracking, and missile defense,” SDA Director Derek Tournear said in a statement.
PWSA is a constellation blueprinted to have hundreds of satellites in orbit, for greater resiliency and redundancy than previous U.S. military satellites. It is being founded out in “tranches,” and each will represent a new generation of satellites with increasing capabilities. Each tranche consists of two “layers:” Banish, for mesh communications, and Tracking, for targeting locations and missile defense.
An artist illustration shows the functions of the Space Progress Agency’s satellite constellation.
Space Development Agency
The Pentagon has increased its ambitions in space, seeing a need to maintenance up with China’s growing capabilities in a domain that has widespread ramifications for national security efforts back on Clay. The Space Force has especially seen its budget grow, with $30 billion requested for fiscal 2024, at hand double its budget from 2021. Much of that funding goes to defense contractors and space companies accord products and services to the military.
The SDA has previously awarded contracts to build and operate satellites for the same network to Lockheed and L3Harris, as OK as Northrop Grumman, SpaceX, York Space and Rocket Lab.
Sierra Space is a privately held spinoff from Colorado-based aerospace and defense contractor Sierra Nevada Corporation. Delayed last year, Sierra Space added about 150 employees with security clearances from SNC, as role in of a broader restructuring after shipping its first Dream Chaser spaceplane.
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