SDA Issues Special Notice seeking Proposals for Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) Backhaul Capability Concepts

Response Date: May 26, 2023

The Space Development Agency (SDA) seeks proposals to perform engineering studies, analyses, and technical trades for a “low-Earth orbit (LEO) backhaul” capability to support high bandwidth data transport via the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA).

The bulk of SDA’s Transport Layer efforts to date have been focused on delivering DOD’s Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) backbone through tactical data links and edge connectivity capability. This call for proposals looks to expand that focus to provide LEO backhaul capability to deliver additional high-bandwidth data transport for DOD, with different specifications and additional capabilities beyond the edge data network already built into SDA’s Transport Layer. 

The purpose of this 90-day study (or studies) is to perform market research on industry capabilities to deliver the contemplated LEO backhaul capability, and inform government reference designs and potential follow-on acquisition of such a capability. SDA is interested in options that leverage, to the maximum extent possible, existing or planned commercial, optically-interconnected orbital mesh network and ground infrastructure. View the full special notice listing for specific timeline, additional details, and deliverables required.

Through this enhanced LEO backhaul data transport capability, SDA will continue to build out DOD’s resilient, proliferated LEO architecture in the PWSA.