The U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency (SDA) has awarded approximately $3.5 billion to four companies to begin building the third generation of its low Earth orbit constellation. The SDA issued firm fixed-price Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreements with L3Harris Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Rocket Lab to build a total of 72 satellites for the Tracking Layer Tranche 3 (TRKT3) of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) constellation in low Earth orbit.
“The Tracking Layer of Tranche 3, once integrated with the PWSA Transport Layer, will significantly increase the coverage and accuracy needed to close kill chains against advanced adversary threats,” said SDA Acting Director Gurpartap ‘GP’ Sandhoo. “The constellation will include a mix of missile warning and missile tracking, with half the constellation’s payloads supporting advanced missile defense missions to pace evolving threats.”
### Satellite Capabilities and Launch Timeline
The satellites are slated to begin launching in fiscal year 2029 and will cover two types of sensing capabilities: missile warning/missile tracking (MW/MT) infrared (IR) sensors and missile warning, tracking, and defense (MWTD) sensors. Each of the four companies will build 18 satellites.
Here’s the breakdown of funds allocated to each company and the satellites they will build:
– **Lockheed Martin:** $1.1 billion for 18 MWTD space vehicles (SVs)
– **L3Harris Technologies:** $843 million for 18 MW/MT SVs
– **Rocket Lab:** $805 million for 18 MWTD SVs
– **Northrop Grumman:** $764 million for 18 MW/MT SVs
“The addition of these satellites will achieve near-continuous global coverage for missile warning and tracking, along with payloads capable of generating fire control quality tracks for missile defense,” Sandhoo added. “This is a prime example of spiral development: the ability to rapidly integrate the next generation of technologies, and to proliferate the most impactful capabilities for increased capacity and lethality.”
### Rocket Lab’s Role and Technology
In its announcement to investors, Rocket Lab noted that the initial amount is a base contract, with up to $10.45 million in options available. The company will build these satellites on its Lightning satellite bus featuring Rocket Lab’s next-generation Phoenix infrared sensor payload — a wide field-of-view (WFOV) solution designed to meet evolving missile defense needs for national security space. Additionally, the satellites will include the advanced StarLite space protection sensors, designed to safeguard the constellation against directed energy threats.
Rocket Lab also revealed that some other companies on this contract are incorporating its StarLite sensors.
“The Tranche 3 Tracking Layer constellation is part of the U.S. Space Force’s strategy to counter rapidly evolving global threats, ensuring the nation’s defense capabilities remain ahead of adversaries. Rocket Lab is honored to play a role in enabling this,” said Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck. “Demand for resilient, scalable, and affordable space systems continues to grow, and this award demonstrates that Rocket Lab is uniquely positioned to lead the charge in delivering solutions that meet the needs of national security.”
This contract marks Rocket Lab’s second award from the SDA, adding to its $515 million award for 18 satellites with the SDA’s Transporter Layer-Beta Tranche 2 program, which will enhance secure, low-latency communications across the PWSA.
### L3Harris Technologies’ Expanding Fleet
L3Harris is expanding on its earlier allotments of four missile tracking satellites launched as part of Tranche 0, plus 34 satellites currently in development across Tranche 1 and Tranche 2. The company recently opened a new facility on its Palm Bay, Florida campus dedicated to the production of Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 satellites.
“L3Harris is proud to support SDA in its mission to deliver a next-generation, layered defense architecture that can track threats in real time,” said Christopher Kubasik, Chair and CEO of L3Harris. “Defeating the hypersonic missile threat begins in space, and our Tranche 3 satellites will advance our proven, on-orbit tracking and targeting capability needed to protect our homeland.”
### Northrop Grumman’s Continued Commitment
Northrop Grumman is now responsible for 150 satellites across the first three Tranches for the SDA. The first plane of its Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL) satellites is set to launch in early 2026.
“Northrop Grumman’s contributions to both high and low altitude layers of our nation’s missile warning and tracking architecture help protect our nation from a wide range of threats,” said Brandon White, Vice President and General Manager of the space-enabled multi-domain operations division at Northrop Grumman. “With our extensive history of fielding operational Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) satellites, we are poised to rapidly deliver the TRKT3 satellites to the SDA.”
### Lockheed Martin’s Largest Contract Share
Lockheed Martin received the largest portion of the contract, valued at $1.1 billion for its 18 MWTD satellites. Earlier, in January 2024, the company was awarded an $890 million contract for 18 Tranche 2 Tracking Layer satellites. Lockheed Martin launched 21 of its T1TL satellites in October 2025 and has another 21 in production.
The 18 TRKT3 satellites will be built on satellite buses supplied by Terran Orbital and assembled at Terran Orbital’s SmallSat Processing and Delivery Center in Colorado. In total, Lockheed Martin is currently contracted to build 124 space vehicles for the SDA.
“Lockheed Martin’s ongoing investments and evolving practices demonstrate our commitment to supporting the SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture,” said Joe Rickers, Vice President of Transport, Tracking and Warning at Lockheed Martin. “These innovative approaches position Lockheed Martin to meet the warfighter’s urgent need for a proliferated missile defense constellation.”
### Integrated, Resilient Constellation
All satellites in the Tracking Layer will be designed to operate seamlessly with other satellites in the PWSA constellation in low Earth orbit, working in concert with a common ground system.
“The Tracking Layer will form a global constellation in LEO of IR missile warning and missile tracking satellites that integrate with the Transport Layer’s low-latency mesh communication network to provide mission data directly over tactical data links and enable advanced missile tracking from proliferated LEO,” the SDA said in a statement. “Resilience is built in through proliferation by fielding refreshed capabilities with targeted technological enhancements approximately every two years with each generation of satellites that launch.”
This innovative approach ensures that the United States maintains a robust, scalable, and advanced missile warning and defense architecture capable of countering evolving global threats.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2025/12/20/space-development-agency-awards-roughly-3-5-billion-to-4-companies-for-72-missile-tracking-and-warning-satellites/
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