MODERNIZING THE MILITARY'S SPACE ARCHITECTURE

WHO WE ARE

The Space Development Agency orchestrates the development and fielding of DoD’s future threat-driven National Defense Space Architecture. SDA uses novel approaches to accelerate the military space capabilities necessary to ensure U.S. technological and military advantage in space for national defense.

CAPABILITY LAYERS

TRANSPORT LAYER

SDA's Transport Layer will provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and communications connectivity worldwide to a full range of warfighter platforms.

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BATTLE MANAGEMENT LAYER

SDA's Battle Management Layer will provide architecture tasking, mission command and control, and data dissemination to support time-sensitive kill chain closure at campaign scales.

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TRACKING LAYER

SDA's Tracking Layer will provide global indications, warning, tracking, and targeting of advanced missile threats, including hypersonic missile systems.

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CUSTODY LAYER

SDA’s Custody Layer will provide 24/7, all-weather custody of time-sensitive, left-of-launch surface mobile targets to support targeting for advanced weapons.

 

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EMERGING CAPABILITIES (DETERRENCE) LAYER

SDA's Emerging Capabilities Layer will incubate new mission concepts. Initial focus will be to deter hostile action in deep space (beyond Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) up to lunar distances).

 

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NAVIGATION LAYER

SDA's Navigation Layer will provide alternate positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) for Global Positioning System (GPS)-denied environments.

 

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SUPPORT LAYER

SDA's Support Layer will enable ground and launch segments to support a responsive space architecture.

 

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Esper Orders SDA To Link C2 Networks For All-Domain Ops

Date: May 6, 2020 | Outlet: Defense News | BY: Theresa Hitchens    WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Mark Esper has ordered the military services to look to the Space Development Agency’s developing “data transport” satellites to connect their separate command and control systems for future all-domain operations, says SDA Director Derek Tournear. Speaking at a webinar…

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SDA Posts First RFP Seeking Proposals in Support of Transport Tranche 0

Proposals are due by Noon EDT on June 1, 2020 The Space Development Agency (SDA) seeks proposals on their first Request for Proposal (RFP) to help build the Transport layer. Transport Tranche 0 is an interoperable mesh network of tens of satellites to provide periodic low-latency and high-capacity data connectivity. The agency plans to award…

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House Armed Services Committee ranking member Mac Thornberry, R-Texas

OpEd: FCC and Ligado are undermining GPS – and with it, our economy and national security

Date: April 22, 2020 | Outlet: C4ISRNet | By Sen. Jim Inhofe, Sen. Jack Reed, Rep. Adam Smith, Rep. Mac Thornberry Right now, the coronavirus is rightly our country’s most immediate concern. But the Federal Communications Commission has used the crisis, under the cover of darkness, to approve a long-stalled application by Ligado Networks — a proposal…

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A rendering of a GSSAP satellite in deep space. Air Force Space Command

US girds its satellite communications infrastructure in space during coronavirus pandemic

Date: April 18, 2020 | Outlet: CNBC.com | By Sarah Scoles In 2016 a Navy satellite called MUOS-5 wasn’t doing well. Partway to its intended orbit, it simply stalled out – but because the spacecraft was already so far away, the dilemma’s details were hard to discern. That’s where the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program…

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Space Development Agency to seek bids for its first constellation

Date: April 2, 2020 | Outlet: SpaceNews | By Sandra Erwin SDA will issue a final solicitation for bids for the mesh network of satellites known as “transport layer” around May 1. WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency intends to select two or more companies later this year to design, build and test a mesh…

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SDA’s First Satellites Aim to Enable JADC2

Date: April 2, 2020 | Outlet: Air Force Magazine | By Rachel S. Cohen The Space Development Agency has released its draft request for proposals for an initial batch of 20 data-relay satellites known as the “Tranche 0 transport layer.” Pentagon officials see the transport layer as a way to unify the various space-based sensors that…

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SPACE JUST IN: Space Development Agency to Award First Satellite Contracts by August

Date: April 2, 2020 | Outlet: National Defense Magazine | By Mandy Mayfield The Space Development Agency plans to have the first constellation of tracking and communications satellites in low-Earth orbit by 2022, the agency’s director said April 2. The first step will be to a “tranche zero constellation,” Derek Tournear told reporters during a press…

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Space Force Prompts Pentagon Effort to Streamline Its Purchasing

Date: February 13, 2020 | Outlet: Bloomberg Government | By Travis J. Tritten The military’s two-month-old Space Force is on trajectory for major growth but the Pentagon is still weighing an overhaul of how it buys and develops the hardware needed. Past programs have suffered from poor planning and bureaucracy amid threats from adversaries, lawmakers…

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Space Development Agency Rolling Out Solicitations

Date: Jan. 21, 2020 | Outlet: National Defense Magazine | By Jon Harper The Space Development Agency released a broad agency announcement Jan. 21 for new technologies, and additional solicitations will be coming down the pipeline soon, the organization’s director told reporters. The SDA is charged with accelerating the development and fielding of cutting edge…

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SDA’s 2020 Plans Take Shape

Date: Jan. 22, 2020 | Outlet: Air Force Magazine | By Rachel S. Cohen The Space Development Agency in 2020 is embarking on its first full year of work to put up potentially thousands of satellites that aim to share combat data in new ways and better protect US interests. After standing up in March 2019,…

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