SDA explores integration of SpaceX laser communication terminals with missile tracking sats

L3Harris will provide next-generation technology to support SDA's Accelerated Missile Defense Tranche 3 (AMDT3) mission. (Image: L3Harris)

WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency (SDA) has awarded SpaceX a contract worth almost $10 million to study how the company’s laser communications terminals can best integrate with the agency’s missile defense related satellites.

The study will look at hardware, software and connectivity challenges with transmitting data from the agency’s Tracking Layer of missile warning, tracking and targeting satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) with the SpaceX Plug and Play, or Plaser, optical communications terminals (OCTs), an SDA spokesperson told Breaking Defense today.

The Plasers provide the satellite-to-satellite laser links at the heart of the Space Force’s nascent Space Data Network Backbone, being built by SpaceX to provide high speed, low latency communications between Defense Department satellites ― with a near-term focus on the Trump administration’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative.

The contract, announced on Wednesday, is worth $9.9 million with options worth up to nearly $12.7 million and covers work through Oct. 7, 2027, including completion of a “risk reduction study, the delivery of representative hardware, and support to missile warning and tracking system integration.”

Issues with connectivity between the SDN Backbone, SDA’s Tracking Layer and the medium Earth orbit missile warning/tracking satellites being developed by Space Systems Command (SSC) now are a key concern for the Space Force. As first reported by Breaking Defense, the OCTs on those constellations are incompatible because they each use a difference optical waveform standard for data transmission.

One approach for integrating SDA’s Tracking Layer with the Plasers, experts previously told Breaking Defense, is to place SDA OCTs on board translator satellites, called Space Exchange Points, being developed by SSC to link its missile tracking/warning birds to the SDN Backbone. Other approaches include buying Plasers to equip future Tracking Layer birds or even developing new transmission standards.

The SDA spokesperson said the new study is a first step, and thus there are a number of potential hardware and software pathways for consideration.