Space Force bets on commercial entrants in $4B satcom contest

American Warfighters are planning to spend millions of millions to make sure they need jam-proof communication, and the Space Force they have.

As part of that effort, the service has established a strategic Sattcom program to create a protected battlefield communication through satellite. The Space Force has already a contract with Defense Primes Boeing and Northrope Gromeman, which is the prototype payload for satellite to the far-flung land orbital orbit.

Now, the program is entering a new stage. On Tuesday, the Space Force provided five additional agreements for the design and demonstration of purposeful satellites for providing jam-resistant commas to strategic forces. The winners of the winners are Boeing, Northrope Gromeman, Viassat and IntelSat, and a relative’s new arrival: an initiative-backed startup located in Astranis, San Francisco. (IntelSat will buy his satellite bus from K2 space, another initiative-supported startup))

The initial rewards are relatively small, the total is attached to $ 37.3 million. However, the program has a $ 4 billion reward ceiling, so the winners can sign more profitable defense agreements.

Each firm will develop its architecture by January 2026. After that, the Space Force will select a design and provide an additional agreement for the first satellite, with a launch planned in 2028. Additional production awards will also be spread in 2028.

The PTS-G contracts are a significant departure from how the military has collected the geostationary satellites, which usually had a very long period of launch from the contract award and could spend more than one billion dollars per spacecraft.

On the contrary, the Space Force is definitely trying to achieve the speed of commercial entrances and will encourage the competition by selecting multiple vendors for the initial phase of the program.

“Our PTS-G Agreement has converted the SSC War for the War of War,” said Cordel Delpena Jr., executive officer of the program. “The inclusion of commercial baseline designs to meet military capacity increases the speed and efficiency of the Space Force to add the ability to meet emerging threats.”