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WASHINGTON — The Space Force announced today that it has awarded SpaceX a $2.29 billion contract to accelerate the fielding of a low‑Earth‑orbit (LEO) data‑transport constellation for the Space Data Network (SDN), which will serve as the service’s central communications network linking sensors to shooters.
Under the Other Transaction Authority agreement, the company must deliver a fully operational prototype capability by the end of 2027, according to Space Systems Command (SSC) in a press release.
The SDN Backbone — formerly known as MILNET and built on SpaceX’s militarized Starshield variant of its commercial Starlink constellation — will function as the backhaul data‑transport layer for the broader SDN. While the award to SpaceX was expected, the magnitude of the contract stands out.
The Space Force’s fiscal‑year 2026 budget allocated $277 million for MILNET. The FY27 budget request seeks $1.5 billion for SDN Backbone research and development and an additional $1.6 billion for procurement, both to be funded through the reconciliation package.
‘The SDN Backbone is a proliferated low‑Earth‑orbit (pLEO) satellite constellation that forms an integrated network, delivering robust, resilient, high‑capacity, low‑latency data transport for the joint force. This award will expand the constellation with an optically interconnected mesh of satellites, providing worldwide tactical communications and broadband services,’ the release said.
Col. Ryan Frazier, acting Space Force portfolio acquisition executive for Space Based Sensing & Targeting, stated in the release that the SDN Backbone serves as the core communications layer for USSF warfighting systems, ensuring continuous, global, secure connectivity for sensors and shooters.
The SSC release notes that the Space Development Agency’s Transport Layer satellites in LEO are part of the broader SDN, which the service envisions as a future mesh network of satellites across multiple orbits that will, among other missions, support the Pentagon’s Golden Dome missile‑defense shield.
