“We aren’t trading speed for scale; we are demanding both,” says the military’s program manager.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket streaks into orbit with a batch of Starlink Internet satellites on January 4, 2026. Credit: US Space Force/Gwendolyn Kurzen
SpaceX has won a lucrative contract to provide the US military with a means of distributing space-based sensing and targeting data, forming the “backbone” of a rearchitected network after separate Pentagon initiatives stalled, officials announced Tuesday.
Space Systems Command, the Space Force’s primary procurement and acquisition center, announced the $2.29 billion firm-fixed-price agreement, confirming long-simmering reports that the Pentagon was likely to tap SpaceX for a new communications network in low-Earth orbit. SpaceX’s selection for the Space Data Network (SDN) Backbone contract “accelerates the delivery of a resilient, high-speed communications network in space,” Space Systems Command said in a statement.
The network will be based on technology originally developed for SpaceX’s Starlink global Internet constellation. SpaceX already builds and launches specially designed satellites, called Starshield, for military applications. The SDN Backbone network in low-Earth orbit (LEO) will presumably use the Starshield platform.
“This award will enhance the network with an expanded optically interconnected mesh of satellites delivering worldwide tactical communications and broadband communication services,” Space Systems Command said.
Col. Ryan Frazier, acting Space Force portfolio acquisition executive for Space-Based Sensing and Targeting, said the network “leverages the best of commercial innovation” and will be a “huge benefit and enabler” for US military forces. The network “acts as a core communications layer for the USSF war-fighting systems, ensuring our sensors and shooters are connected continuously, globally and securely,” Frazier said in a press release.
Changing midstream
This may sound familiar to anyone who has kept up with the evolution of a Pentagon office named the Space Development Agency. Established in 2019, SDA started launching prototypes for a constellation of missile-tracking and data-relay satellites in 2023. The idea was to rapidly procure, develop, and field new generations of tracking and data “transport” satellites every two years. SDA’s strategy was to cast a wide net across the US space industry, using satellites and sensors developed by many companies.
But SDA’s architecture stalled, and military officials blamed the delays on bottlenecks in satellite supply chains and difficulties integrating the network and its numerous contractors. The Government Accountability Office last year also identified technical problems that slowed the program’s development and adoption.
The first budget request from the second Trump administration last year revealed a change in the Pentagon’s thinking. In budget documents, White House officials mentioned a new program called “pLEO SATCOM” or “MILNET” while proposing to eliminate funding for the next tranche of data transport satellites from the Space Development Agency. MILNET has since been renamed the Space Data Network.
A stack of 21 SDA data transport satellites manufactured by York Space Systems was launched last September.
Credit: York Space Systems
A stack of 21 SDA data transport satellites manufactured by York Space Systems was launched last September. Credit: York Space Systems
Lawmakers have voiced concerns about moving away from SDA’s original strategy, which leaned on competition and open architectures, and giving the network to a single company. Space Systems Command said Tuesday that the Space Data Network will work with “multiple vendors” with plans to “expand its participants over the summer.” These participants may include companies with their own budding broadband constellations, such as Amazon.
The command did not offer further details on how it will ensure competition or open standards, but officials said SDA’s previous data transport architecture, which still has satellites under construction awaiting launch, will “come together” with the Space Force’s Space Data Network procurement efforts.
“Our acquisition strategy is designed to foster competition and broaden our industrial base,” said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Fry, SDN Backbone system program manager, in a statement. “We aren’t trading speed for scale; we are demanding both.”
The other major line of effort at SDA is focused on deploying a constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites to detect and track missile launches. These tracking satellites will fly much closer to Earth than the Space Force’s legacy missile-warning satellites, with improved capability to monitor emerging threats like hypersonic missiles. SDA’s tracking and transport layers were intended to work together to detect missile threats and provide targeting data for interceptors to take them out. The program predated President Donald Trump’s announcement last year of plans for a Golden Dome missile shield, but SDA’s tracking and data transport network would underpin such a missile defense program.
The Pentagon has not announced any changes to SDA’s missile tracking layer, but the data transport network accounted for the majority of the agency’s satellites. The Space Force’s decision to turn over the data relay backbone to SpaceX will shrink SDA’s portfolio, raising questions about the agency’s long-term future.
While SDN Backbone is a new program, SpaceX brings many of the advantages of incumbency. SpaceX has more than 10,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, primarily for civilian use, and hundreds more Starshield satellites for military use. Starshield satellites already provide connectivity for various military weapons systems, including one-way attack drones used for attacks on Iran.
SDA has awarded contracts to date for approximately 340 data transport satellites. Those satellites, under development by York Space Systems, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Rocket Lab, carried an average cost of about $16 million per spacecraft, significantly more than the cost of a single satellite from SpaceX’s Starlink or Starshield assembly line. SDA has not announced plans to cancel any of its existing data relay satellite contracts.
Last year, when SDN was still known as MILNET, a Space Force commander responsible for operating the military’s communications satellites said the network would comprise some 480 satellites operated by SpaceX and overseen by a military mission director. Ars asked Space Systems Command for an update on the number of satellites for SDN Backbone and who will operate them, and we will provide an update when we receive a response.
Whatever it includes, SpaceX is required to deliver a “fully operational prototype capability” for the SDN Backbone by the end of 2027, the Space Force said. With this delivery, SpaceX will assume a larger role in direct combat support to go along with its position as the world’s leading commercial launch provider and satellite manufacturer.
Stephen Clark is a space reporter at Ars Technica, covering private space companies and the world’s space agencies. Stephen writes about the nexus of technology, science, policy, and business on and off the planet.
