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The Space Development Agency's proliferated LEO-based constellation will provide 24/7 global communications and missile tracking.
The U.S. Air Force is debating whether to cancel a series of current and future contracts for the Space Development Agency (SDA) and to use assets built by SpaceX instead, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said March 27.
The SDA is developing and fielding a new constellation called the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) with hundreds of satellites based in low Earth orbit (LEO), replenished in two-year cycles known as Tranches. It will support 24/7 global communications under the Transport Layer, and missile defense and tracking via the Tracking Layer. It has launched 27 satellites as part of the demonstration Tranche 0 effort, and plans to launch more than 150 satellites later this year under the initial operational batch known as Tranche 1.
The Department of the Air Force is now considering canceling the solicitations for Tranche 2 and 3 of the Transport Layer, and instead using SpaceX Starshield satellites, “an existing SpaceX capability,” Cramer said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to consider the nominations of several Defense Department officials, including Air Force Secretary nominee Troy Meink.
“I’m told that cutting these bids for these Transport Layers means maybe eight, or more, small, midsize companies would not be allowed to bid,” Cramer said while directing a question to Meink. Cramer’s home state hosts the SDA’s main ground operations and integration center in Grand Forks.
No decisions have been made to date on Tranche 2 and 3 of the Transport Layer of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, an Air Force spokesperson told Aviation Week in a March 27 email.
The Air Force is developing its fiscal 2026 budget request alongside the rest of the Pentagon. The military services are concurrently responding to department-level guidance to identify 8% of planned 2026 spending that could be redirected from “noncrucial” areas toward higher priority programs.
The Department of the Air Force and the U.S. Space Force are collaborating with the Office of the Secretary of Defense “to evaluate all acquisition programs in the context of FY26 president’s budget deliberations and the administration’s priorities,” 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,” they added.
Meink, who currently serves as the principal deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), denied any knowledge of the discussions going on within the Pentagon about the SDA contracts. “If confirmed, I look forward to diving into that and assessing where they’re going,” he said during his nomination hearing.
The SDA Tranche 2 Transport Layer is slated to include 210 satellites. York Space Systems, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab and Lockheed Martin are currently on contracts awarded in 2023-24 to build prototype spacecraft set to launch in 2026-27. Most of the vendors have completed a preliminary design review under those contracts.
One related contract award was recently resolicited. The SDA last August tapped York Space Systems and Tyvak International, a Terran Orbital company, for the Tranche 2 Transport Layer Gamma effort. Terran Orbital is now part of Lockheed Martin. Viasat filed a lawsuit in September 2024 in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, alleging several of its competitors were unfairly assisted in the bid process.
The Air Force issued several corrective actions in response, including releasing a new solicitation on March 7 for the contract previously awarded to Tyvak, and placing SDA Director Derek Tournear on paid administrative leave Jan. 16. It authorized York Space Systems to continue work on its 10 awarded space vehicles. The lawsuit remains ongoing as of March 27.
SDA is preparing to open competition for the Tranche 3 satellites that would begin launching in 2028. It released a draft solicitation dated Jan. 22 for the Tranche 3 Transport Layer Upsilon portion of the PWSA.
SpaceX is a vendor for the SDA’s Tranche 0 and built four Tracking Layer spacecraft under that contract. It developed Starshield as a militarized version of its Starlink internet satellites.
The NRO reportedly is using Starshield spacecraft to build out its new proliferated LEO-based constellation, but has not officially confirmed the units or types of satellites. Reuters in March 2024 reported that NRO had signed a $1.8 billion contract with SpaceX for an LEO network. Meink disclosed the NRO’s proliferated LEO program in April 2024 at the annual Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.
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