SDA Requests Industry Feedback on Tranche 3 Transport Layer Upsilon Variant Draft Solicitation

Posted On: January 23, 2025

Responses Due: February 10, 2025

The Space Development Agency (SDA) released a draft solicitation for the Tranche 3 (T3) Transport Layer Upsilon (T3TLÏ…) space vehicle variant of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). This draft solicitation seeks industry input ahead of the final solicitation to select space industry builder-operator teams that will partner with SDA to jointly develop and operate the T3TLÏ… space vehicles (SVs) and mission as part of the PWSA. The Government plans to purchase a constellation of approx. 40 T3TLÏ… SVs, divided into four orbital planes of ten SVs each, intended to be awarded to two vendors, subject to available funding.

SDA seeks input on a solution for PWSA T3 Transport involving the T3TLÏ… SVs that will include optical communication terminals (OCTs) to support in-plane and cross-plane crosslinks, links to terrestrial OCTs (ground, air, and maritime), and crosslinks to compatible SVs external to the Transport Layer.

SDA’s Tranche 3 programs will provide sustained capability with advances over Tranche 2 in capabilities such as coverage, sensitivity, and accuracy of missile warning, tracking, and defense capabilities; coverage, resilience, and capacity of tactical data links; PNT resilience, accuracy of PNT solutions, and distribution of PNT solutions to users; and mission and network management performance and responsiveness enabled by autonomy.

To view the draft solicitation and instructions on how to request the full package, use the link below.Â