The Space Development Agency is shelling out $30 million to see how it can use a commercial satellite network for tactical communications.
The contract award to AST SpaceMobile, announced Feb. 23, is the agency’s first use of a vendor pool meant for demonstration and experimentation contracts called Hybrid Acquisition for Proliferated Low Earth Orbit, or HALO.
AST, founded in 2019, is building a network of broadband satellites called BlueBird. It currently has six spacecraft in low-Earth orbit and plans to launch between 45 and 60 satellites this year. For SDA, the company will demonstrate the ability to integrate its BlueBird spacecraft with tactical military radios.
“Through a series of on-orbit demonstrations, the program will validate seamless integration with existing tactical military radios and demonstrate how commercial satellite infrastructure can be rapidly applied for defense applications and deliver data products as-a-service to the Space Development Agency,” the company said in a statement.
AST and SDA didn’t indicate when the demonstrations will start, but said they will be completed by December 2027.
The Space Development Agency is in the midst of developing a multimission constellation in low-Earth orbit called the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture. Part of that constellation, called the Transport Layer, is focused on transporting data and providing communications.
The demonstration contract with AST will let SDA test out technologies it could put on future Transport Layer satellites. That’s the reason HALO was established in 2024 when SDA chose 19 companies to compete for contracts to conduct rapid in-space demonstrations of technologies or concepts.
The deal with AST SpaceMobile is SDA’s first HALO award, but a spokesperson said there will be additional contracts in the future.
“We are now using commercial solutions to quickly demonstrate mission utility, reduce risk for the operational layers of future tranches of the PWSA, and accelerate the delivery of cutting-edge capability to the warfighter,” SDA’s acting director, Gurpartap Sandhoo, said in a Feb. 23 statement.
Yet the Transport Layer will likely be just one piece of the Space Force’s future transport architecture. The service is still in the midst of determining how best to integrate commercial SATCOM capabilities, and the contract with AST could potentially help those plans too.
Another open question is how SDA’s constellation will work with a lesser-known satellite network called MILNET, which the service developed in partnership with the National Reconnaissance Office. SpaceX is reported to be the sole MILNET contractor, but defense officials have said the plan is for multiple companies to provide satellites and ground terminals.
The service’s fiscal 2026 budget request put long-term plans for SDA’s data transport layer on hold, and zeroed out funding for Tranche 3, stalling plans to solicit proposals for the satellites in 2025. Space Force officials have said they hope to have a solid plan for data transport in time for the release of the fiscal 2027 budget this spring.
