The Space Development Agency (SDA) has awarded contracts worth $1.75 billion to build 36 satellites to support the Golden Dome for America missile defense system. The awards, announced in July 2026, consists of two agreements that will support Golden Dome’s space-based capabilities. The United States Space Force will be responsible for future operations and sustainment, according to an SDA news release.
The satellites will be part of Tranche 3 of SDA’s Accelerated Missile Defense (AMDT3) space vehicles (SV) to proliferate missile warning/missile tracking and missile defense sensors as part of the tracking layer of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), a low-Earth orbit satellite constellation developed by SDA as a foundational layer of Golden Dome.
The awards align with SDA plans for a “hybrid missile defense architecture to pursue global stereo coverage and access of missile warning/missile tracking and missile defense capabilities,” according to the news release.
“With these awards, SDA is accelerating the deployment of the tracking layer to provide the homeland, our deployed forces, and allies with global, persistent indications, detection, identification warning, tracking, and defense against advanced and evolving missile threats,” GP Sandhoo, Space Force Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Missile Warning and Tracking and SDA Director, said in the news release. “AMDT3 expands upon SDA’s previous and current tracking layer generations — Tranches 1, 2 & 3 — marking another milestone in delivering a resilient, global missile warning, missile tracking and missile defense capability.”
Tranche 1 of PWSA consists of about 155 satellites, with 63 deployed as of July 2026. Tranche 2 architecture is currently in production and will consist of 270 satellites. Tranche 3 ultimately will consist of 104 satellites.
The AMDT3 contract calls for 36 SVs across four orbital planes, awarded to two U.S. firms, according to the SDA news release:
- Under a $955 million agreement, L3 Harris will provide 18 hypersonic and ballistic tracking space sensor-like missile defense variant SVs across two orbital planes.
- Sierra Space will receive $798 million to produce 18 missile warning/missile tracking variant SVs across two orbital planes.
“SDA’s Tracking Layer forms a global constellation of missile warning/missile tracking and missile defense satellites, equipped with infrared sensing payloads, that will integrate with a low-latency communication network,” according to the news release. “These satellites will provide mission data directly over tactical data links from low Earth orbit.”
The Space Force awarded initial contracts for Tranche 3 in December 2025 to L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Rocket Lab for a total of 72 satellites. This final batch of satellites are expected to be delivered in time for a 2028 launch.
U.S. officials said they first successfully tested Golden Dome’s capability in June 2026 after a directed-energy system autonomously detected, targeted and defeated multiple simulated incoming threats, including drones and cruise missiles.