Space Force Faces $1 Billion Interoperability Fix for Satellite Laser Network

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force’s multibillion-dollar initiative to construct a high-speed satellite data network using laser communications will require an entirely new set of satellites and additional funding to link with other military space systems, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Essentially, these additional satellites would act as translators between different optical waveforms—initially linking two or three missile-warning and tracking constellations, with others to follow—to ensure multiple systems can communicate. This connectivity is critical to the Trump administration’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative, which the network is intended to accelerate, multiple sources said.

The Space Force aims to deploy an operational prototype of the Space Data Network Backbone, being developed by SpaceX, by 2027. The large low-Earth-orbit constellation will serve as the data backhaul layer—effectively the central communications traffic router—of the service’s planned SDN architecture, a space-based network of networks designed to connect sensors to shooters.

The Space Force envisions the SDN as a hybrid constellation of military and commercial communications satellites capable of sharing data across missions, including missile warning, tracking, targeting, and both air- and ground-moving target indication. A top priority will be connecting to the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tracking Layer satellites for missile detection and tracking in low Earth orbit, as well as Space Systems Command’s (SSC) comparable Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking satellites in medium Earth orbit (MEO).

SpaceX received a $2.29 billion contract in May to accelerate development of the SDN Backbone in support of President Donald Trump’s 2028 deadline for fielding Golden Dome. The Space Force has not publicly disclosed the total number of satellites in the backbone, but the effort represents a restructured version of the earlier MILNET constellation, which a Space Force official said last year would include more than 480 satellites.

The SDN Backbone’s central feature is laser-based satellite-to-satellite communications. These optical links, enabled by optical communications terminals (OCT) aboard the satellites, allow larger volumes of data to be transmitted faster and more securely than the radio-frequency links used by traditional communications satellites.

However, SpaceX is using proprietary OCTs on the SDN Backbone satellites—referred to by the company as “Plasers”—that cannot directly exchange data with terminals on the SDA and SSC missile-warning and tracking satellites, according to multiple industry, former government, and current Space Force sources. Compounding the issue, these sources said, the OCTs used by SDA and SSC are also incompatible with each other.

To address this connectivity gap, the Space Force is considering a constellation of 12 to 13 additional satellites that would enable otherwise incompatible OCT payloads to exchange data, according to two industry sources and one former Space Force official.

The proposed satellites, known as Space Exchange Points (SEPs) or “translator satellites,” are expected to cost between $12 million and $14 million each, these sources said—totaling roughly $1 billion in new funding that must be secured at a time when the Pentagon is expected to receive less than it requested from Congress.

Beyond the added costs, several sources expressed frustration over the situation involving the Space Force’s two new missile-warning and tracking constellations, noting that the issue could have been avoided had the Pentagon prioritized standardization earlier. Instead, the service is now scrambling to fix a problem that, sources emphasized, should never have occurred.

An SSC spokesperson declined to comment on the compatibility of its MEO satellites with SDA’s LEO satellites or SpaceX’s Plaser, and also declined to discuss the SEP program’s objectives and projected costs. SpaceX did not respond to a detailed inquiry.

Conflicting Optical Standards Hinder Satellite Links

The root of the connectivity problem is that the SpaceX, SDA, and SSC OCTs are based on different technical standards governing the precise optical waveforms used—and therefore the number of gigabits of data per second the laser links can transmit—sources explained.

Part of the standards mismatch stems from a 2025 decision by the Department of the Air Force to switch from using SDA’s Transport Layer of data-relay satellites as the SDN backbone to relying instead on SpaceX’s constellation—then known as MILNET and already in use by the National Reconnaissance Office. By that point, SDA had already been developing both the Transport Layer and Tracking Layer satellites based on its own open-source OCT standard, an initial version of which was published in 2022.

“The optical waveforms and terminals on SDA’s Transport Layer and Tracking Layer satellites, which use the SDA OCT Standard, are not directly compatible with the Plaser waveform,” an SDA official confirmed.

The disconnect between SDA and SSC regarding OCTs is harder to justify, one former Pentagon official said, given that both development programs began around the same time in 2019 and could have collaborated on compatible OCTs. However, one industry source suggested a possible rationale: SDA has focused on OCTs optimized for its LEO satellites, while SSC concentrates on MEO operations, where satellites are farther from Earth and farther apart than in LEO.

The Space Force is aware of the challenge. G.P. Sandhoo, who leads both SDA and the Space Force’s new Missile Warning and Tracking Portfolio Acquisition Executive office, said on Oct. 28 during a panel at the Silicon Valley Space Week conference in Mountain View, California, that his office will eventually need to determine how to integrate data from sensors aboard satellites in different orbits, according to Space News.

An SDA spokesperson added that “interoperability” between the OCTs for the LEO and MEO missile-warning and tracking constellations is currently “being evaluated” by the Space Force.

One solution would be for the SEP satellites to carry both SDA and SSC-standard OCTs, along with software to transmit their data to the SpaceX Plaser and the SDN Backbone satellites.

Another potential solution is for both the LEO and MEO constellations to adopt a new version of SDA’s optical waveform standard, v.4.0.0, which could potentially resolve the issue in the future, according to current and former Space Force officials.

That standard was developed in consultation with SSC, the former Space Force official said, and features “two modes:” the first is essentially the same standard SDA uses for “LEO to LEO and LEO to ground” communications; the second would enable LEO-to-MEO optical data transmission. As a result, it could directly link LEO and MEO missile-warning and tracking satellites and avoid the need to add a third OCT payload to the SEPs.

The SDA spokesperson said the version 4 standard “is not yet under contract for fielding in any SDA Tranches, but is under consideration for Tranche 4.”

Key Acronyms

SDN – Space Data Network

LEO – low Earth orbit

MEO – medium Earth orbit

SEP – Space Exchange Point

SDA – Space Development Agency

SSC – Space Systems Command

OCT – Optical Communications Terminal

EST – Enterprise Space Terminal

Can Translator Satellites Solve the Problem?

SSC has been developing its OCTs, known as Enterprise Space Terminals (ESTs), since 2024. At the time, the command described the program as intended “to operationalize a new enterprise waveform designed to communicate in the Beyond Low Earth Orbit (bLEO) regimes,” with an estimated total cost of $100 million.

This April, General Atomics and CACI announced Phase 3 awards to develop the EST terminals for “flight hardware” production and demonstration, though few other details were provided. In July, SSC awarded California-based startup K2 Space $22.9 million to host tests of two ESTs aboard two of its Gravitas satellites.

An SSC spokesperson declined to comment on the technical details of the ESTs, saying only that the “EST payload implements a government-owned optical communications standard designed for both long- and short-range communications.”

However, the spokesperson confirmed that prototype ESTs are being designed to equip the future SEP translator satellites.

SSC launched the SEP program on Aug. 13 with $12 million awards to five companies—Amazon LEO for Government, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab, and York Space Systems—to build prototypes. The SEP spacecraft are “specialized spacecraft [that] act as orbital routers, allowing disparate networks and government satellite systems to connect directly” to the SDN backbone, according to an SSC release.

To do that, the SSC spokesperson said, the SEP “host vehicles” being built by each contractor will be “integrated with” the SDN Backbone—implying they will be equipped with the SpaceX Plaser—and will also carry the ESTs.

“The five vendors will demonstrate their ability to directly connect their host satellite and associated C2 systems to the existing SDN Backbone architecture: ground-to-ground, ground-to-space, then space-to-space,” the SSC spokesperson added. “Each vendor has its own demonstration schedule, and we are planning demonstrations for next calendar year.”

However, the spokesperson declined to comment when asked specifically whether the SEP satellites will be equipped with the Plaser. They also declined to specify whether the government purchased those terminals from SpaceX for the SEP prototypes or whether each vendor was required to procure them.

SpaceX said in 2024 that it intended to sell a miniature version of the Plaser to allow third-party satellites to connect to Starlink, but it remains unclear whether any such deals have been made. Muon Space announced a “partnership” in September 2025 to equip its Halo satellites with the mini-Plaser, though terms were not disclosed.

The SSC spokesperson noted that SEP spacecraft vendors are also working with EST contractors “to define the interface necessary to host their payloads,” stressing that while the contracts are separate, the efforts are complementary.

“Combining these host spacecraft and optical payload elements, a SEP will allow any external government system carrying a compatible optical terminal to connect to the SDN Backbone,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson did not, however, provide information on the SEP constellation’s ultimate size, costs, or deployment schedule.

The concept of a translator satellite is not new. SDA was working on the idea in 2022 to allow data from commercial satellites to eventually flow into the Transport Layer, but questions remain about how difficult implementation will be.

“Reasonable people will disagree on how difficult it is,” one former Space Force official said. “The technical challenges from the hardware side are fairly straightforward. … But some networking translation must also occur beyond the hardware configuration.”

In addition, the official said, the SEP satellites as currently designed are not compatible with either SDA’s Tracking Layer satellites or the Transport Layer, which is being transferred to SSC for further development as a separate SDN enclave focused on connecting to legacy military platforms such as fighter jets.

This raises the question of whether additional development and funding will be required.

SDA now projects launching its first operational Tracking Layer satellites, Tranche 1, next spring, according to a recent Space News article, marking a two-year delay. Those Tranche 1 satellites are to be followed by two additional sets, Tranche 2 and Tranche 3, each designed with improved capabilities. The agency had projected Tranche 2 launches to begin in December and initial Tranche 3 launches in 2029, but given the Tranche 1 delay, that schedule is now uncertain.

As for the Transport Layer, the shift of the program to SSC has cast its scope, schedule, and funding into doubt. The Pentagon’s 2027 budget request includes continued funding for the Transport Layer’s first two tranches but provides no funding for SDA’s previously planned Tranche 3 and beyond.

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