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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SDA Layered Network of Military Satellites Now Known as “Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture”

Date: January 23, 2023 The Space Development Agency’s resilient layered network of military satellites and supporting elements is now the “Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture” or PWSA. The architecture, formerly known as the “National Defense Space Architecture,” was renamed to more specifically reflect the agency’s mission to deliver needed space-based capabilities to the joint warfighter to support…

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Space Development Agency’s satellite plan gets new name, but focus on speed stays

Date: January 23, 2023 | Outlet: Breaking Defense | By: Theresa Hitchens The name change for SDA’s seven-layer network of satellite and ground systems was approved by both Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and space acquisition czar Frank Calvelli, and is designed to better reflect the network’s actual mission, SDA Director Derek Tournear told Breaking…

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Space Development Agency Systems, Technologies, and Emerging Capabilities (STEC) Broad Agency Announcement

Original Date Offers Due: January 16, 2024 Through this updated Systems, Technologies, and Emerging Capabilities (STEC) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), SDA is soliciting executive summaries, invited proposal abstracts, and invited proposals for novel architecture concepts, systems, technologies, and capabilities that enable leap-ahead improvements for future tranches of the agency’s proliferated network of currently planned capability…

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SDA Issues DRAFT Solicitation for Sabre Payload

Original Response Date: January 30, 2023, 12:00 PM EST The Space Development Agency (SDA) issued an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) solicitation for a payload system that will add multiple new mission capability demonstrations to NExT, SDA’s experimental testbed constellation.  This payload system delivers three (3) independent functional capabilities collectively referred to as the Sabre payload.…

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REDSTONE ROUNDTABLE: Space Development Agency poised to move fast

Date: January 4, 2022   |   Outlet: Redstone Rocket   |   By: Dr. Derek Tournear Team Redstone, Greetings from the Space Development Agency. As a new tenant, SDA is excited to join the Redstone Arsenal community. To clear up any confusion, while we do have a space mission, SDA is not part of U.S. Space Command. Three…

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How the Space Development Agency ‘could have died any number of ways’

Date: December 8, 2022 | Outlet: Defense News | By: Courtney Albon WASHINGTON — Just three years ago, the future of the U.S. Space Development Agency was uncertain. Two of its strongest advocates in the Pentagon had resigned, many viewed its mission as duplicative and confusing, and some speculated the organization, created to change the…

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SDA Releases Call for Proposal Under STEC BAA Tranche 2 Ground, Management, and Integration Layer Phase 0

Original Response Date: January 12, 2023 Under the National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA) Systems, Technologies, and Emerging Capabilities (STEC) Space Development Agency (SDA) Broad Agency Announcement, HQ085022S0001, posted Jan. 13, 2022, SDA has issued a call for proposals. SDA is soliciting full proposals to perform engineering studies, analyses, and technical trades of the Tranche 2…

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The National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA): An Explainer

Date: December 5, 2022 | Outlet: Payload | By: Rachael Zisk Over the last few years, the space industry has grown by leaps and bounds, pushing our space capabilities forward at an unprecedented rate. While its weapons systems may be fast, the Pentagon’s procurement process isn’t exactly known for its speed. Acquisition of new technology…

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SDA Requests Information about Datalinks and Waveforms Application for Tranche 2 Demonstration and Experimentation System (T2DES)

Response Date: Dec 15, 2022 The Space Development Agency (SDA) seeks U.S. industry feedback on advanced tactical datalink and waveform maturity, on-going work with other U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) agencies on datalinks and waveforms, and integrating datalinks and waveforms on future Tranches of the National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA). This would include risk reduction efforts…

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SDA Issues DRAFT Solicitation for Battle Management Command, Control, and Communications (BMC3) Application Factory

Response Date: December 9, 2022 The Space Development Agency (SDA) issued a DRAFT solicitation seeking feedback from industry regarding the Battle Management Command, Control, and Communications (BMC3) software development and hosting environment for the National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA). The contractor ultimately selected will be responsible for the implementation of the BMC3 Application Factory (AppFac),…

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