The U.S. Space Force announced on Friday that it has given Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is set to go public, a $4.16 billion contract for a satellite program intended to identify and target airborne threats.
To promote tighter collaboration throughout the government space industrial base, the Space-Based Advanced Moving Target Indicator (SB-AMTI) has been developed as an integrated system-of-systems that combines space-based sensors, secure communications lines, and ground processing.
One of the numerous layers of the Trump administration’s flagship Golden Dome missile defense system is a sensor and tracking layer. It would be expected that the satellites would be involved in missile tracking.
The Golden Dome project intends to deploy space-based satellites to detect, track, and possibly defeat airborne threats, including still-controversial armaments in orbit, while also increasing the number of ground-based interceptors, sensors, and command systems.
According to the Space Force, a number of businesses, including SpaceX, are part of this SB-AMTI vendor pool, and it will make many awards in the upcoming year.
This initial deal is expected to field a constellation of satellites by 2028, giving the Joint Force an early capability to eliminate operational blind spots.
The Space Force awarded SpaceX earlier this week a $2.29 billion contract to construct a secure, high-speed satellite communications network to link military sensors and weapons units worldwide.
SpaceX is aiming for a valuation of more than $1.75 trillion in its initial public offering.
The director of the program stated in March that the cost of the Golden Dome missile defense shield had increased by $10 billion to $185 billion in order to expedite critical space-based capabilities.
