The Other Transaction Authority agreements were awarded to teams led by Lockheed Martin, Rocket Lab USA, Northrop Grumman and L3Harris Technologies, each contracted to deliver and operate 18 space vehicles for launch in fiscal year 2029. Northrop Grumman said it is set to deliver 150 satellites across Tranches 1, 2 and 3 as part of the Space Development Agency’s broader missile defence initiative.
“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.”
Sandhoo said the addition of these satellites would achieve near-continuous global coverage and provide payloads capable of generating fire control quality tracks for missile defence missions. “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.”
Northrop Grumman’s Tranche 3 Tracking Layer work will provide precision fire-control sensing data and accelerate global detection and tracking of hypersonic weapons from launch through interception. The company said it will produce 18 satellites equipped with infrared sensors using more than 30,000 square feet of allocated manufacturing space.
“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. With our extensive history of fielding operational Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) satellite,” said Brandon White, vice president and general manager of the space-enabled multi-domain operations division at Northrop Grumman.
The Tranche 3 Tracking Layer builds on earlier SDA generations by expanding and enhancing coverage for conventional and advanced missile threats, including hypersonic systems. Each satellite will be interoperable with other PWSA space vehicles and operate through a common ground system integrated with the Transport Layer’s low-latency communications network.
The PWSA is the Space Development Agency’s initiative to create a global, mesh-networked missile defence and communications architecture in low Earth orbit. Northrop Grumman said the first plane of its Tranche 1 Transport Layer satellites is scheduled for launch in early 2026 as part of this next-generation constellation.
