The US Space Force awarded SpaceX a $2.29bn fixed-price contract to build the Space Data Network Backbone using Starshield satellites. The system is intended to link missile-defence sensors and interceptors in near real time with high-capacity, low-latency data transport. Starshield is a defence-hardened variant of Starlink, featuring encrypted links and optical inter-satellite communications, along with missile-warning sensors and target-tracking payloads. The backbone supports the Golden Dome missile-defence initiative, which aims to detect and destroy ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles before launch or during flight. The overall architecture includes sensor and interceptor satellite constellations, with SpaceX providing the communications layer. Other contractors are bidding for sensor and interceptor elements.
"The US Space Force has awarded SpaceX a $2.29bn fixed-price contract to build the Space Data Network Backbone, a secure, high-speed satellite communications layer intended to underpin the Trump administration's Golden Dome missile-defence initiative. The contract was announced on Tuesday. SpaceX must deliver a fully operational prototype capability by the end of 2027."
"The architecture rests on Starshield, the government-focused variant of SpaceX's commercial Starlink constellation. Where Starlink is sized for broadband delivery to consumers, Starshield is hardened for defence use: encrypted links, optical inter-satellite communications, missile-warning sensors and target-tracking payloads."
"The Space Data Network will use Starshield satellites to provide what the Space Force called the "high-capacity, low-latency data transport" needed to integrate sensor data from missile-warning satellites with interceptor weapons systems in near real time."
"The architecture relies on a constellation of sensor satellites, a parallel constellation of interceptor satellites and the communications backbone that ties the two together. SpaceX's contract is for the third of those layers. Lockheed Martin, RTX and Northrop Grumman are bidding for elements of the first two."
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