Space and Military Intelligence Landscape Evaluation - 2460864

Military Intelligence and Technology Contracts

• Shift in Defense Contractors: Over the past five years, there's been a significant shift in the arms industry with new military technology firms like SpaceX, Palantir, and Anduril receiving multi-billion-dollar contract awards from the Pentagon. These contracts cover areas such as communications, targeting, unpiloted vehicles, anti-drone defenses, and hypersonic weapons.

• CACI Wins $855M Defense Deal for Global Intelligence Support: In a contract announced in May 2025, CACI International secured a massive $855 million defense contract to support the U.S. Army's global intelligence and logistics capabilities. This five-year deal will see CACI delivering services to the Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) and has the potential to be utilized by Joint Forces, combatant commands, and the intelligence community.

• Lockheed Martin Contract for F/A-18 Support: On July 11, 2025, Lockheed Martin was awarded a $27.4 million contract for the procurement of test controller processors and infrared receivers to support the F/A-18 aircraft.

• General Dynamics Awarded Sustainment Support Contract: Also on July 11, 2025, General Dynamics Mission Systems received a $49.9 million contract for sustainment support services for the Communication-Electronics Command.

While not specifically intelligence-focused, there are also other recent defense technology contracts and news, such as AIRO's expansion for drone innovation and OSI Systems receiving a contract for cargo and vehicle inspection systems. Additionally, there are reports about new military technologies like the Pentagon's underwater predator and China's work on a drone invisibility cloak from earlier in the year.

Space Contracts

• Boeing Awarded $2.8 Billion Contract for Strategic Communication Satellites: On July 3rd, Space Systems Command announced a $2.8 billion contract awarded to The Boeing Company to build and deliver the first two satellites for the Evolved Strategic Satellite Communications (SATCOM) program. This program aims to modernize strategic communication capabilities in support of the nuclear command, control, and communications mission. The contract includes options for two additional satellites.

• Boeing Also Awarded Contract for Nuclear Command and Control Satellites: Around the same time, it was reported that Boeing also secured a contract valued at $2.4 billion to build up to four new satellites for the critical nuclear command, control, and communications mission as part of the Evolved Strategic SATCOM program.

• Space Development Agency (SDA) Contract Awards: While slightly older, the SDA announced a prototype agreement valued at approximately $515 million with a new Tranche 2 team member on January 8, 2024, to produce a variant of data relay and tactical communication space vehicles. In October 2023, the SDA also awarded two Other Transaction Authority (OTA) prototype agreements totaling approximately $1.3 billion for building and operating other variants of these vehicles.

Space News

• Return of Axiom-4 Crew from ISS: Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and his Axiom-4 crewmates are expected to return to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) today, July 14th, or tomorrow, July 15th. The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, named "Grace," is scheduled to undock from the ISS today around 4:30 PM IST, with splashdown expected off the coast of California around 3:00 PM IST on Tuesday (July 15th).

• Third Interstellar Object Confirmed: NASA has confirmed that a mysterious object detected in late June 2025 is the third interstellar object ever recorded passing through our solar system. Initially labeled A11pl3Z, it has been renamed 3I/ATLAS. The discovery was made by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), a NASA-funded network of telescopes.

Today we learned...

Who is the Space Development Agency?!?!

The Space Development Agency (SDA) is a direct-reporting unit of the United States Space Force. Its mission is to create and sustain lethal, resilient, threat-driven, and affordable military space capabilities that provide persistent, resilient, global, low-latency surveillance to deter or defeat adversaries.

As the Department of Defense's constructive disruptor for space acquisition, the SDA aims to rapidly deliver needed space-based capabilities to the joint warfighter to support terrestrial missions through the development, fielding, and operation of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). This architecture involves a constellation of hundreds of satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO).

The SDA utilizes a unique business model that emphasizes speed and lower costs by leveraging commercial development to achieve a proliferated architecture and enhance resilience. Their approach involves spiral development, delivering a minimum viable product every two years and adding capabilities to future generations as the threat evolves. The SDA intends to field and maintain a constellation of at least 1,000 satellites in LEO by 2026.

Recent Activities and News (in addition to the contracts mentioned previously):

• FOO Fighter Program: On April 30, 2024, the SDA announced a contract award worth approximately $414 million to build eight satellites for the FOO Fighter program. These satellites, slated for launch in the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, will accelerate fire-control capability for global detection, warning, and precision tracking of advanced threats.

• Tranche 0 Launch: On February 15, 2024, the SDA and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) confirmed the successful launch of six satellites to low-Earth orbit by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. These satellites included two for MDA's Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor and others for SDA's Tranche 0 tracking layer.

• Tranche 3 Program Integration: On December 13, 2024, the SDA released a final request for proposals for the Tranche 3 Program Integration (T3PI) effort of the PWSA. This seeks proposals for systems engineering and integration activities supporting the T3 program.

• Advanced Fire Control Ground Infrastructure: On November 12, 2024, the SDA announced a contract for Advanced Fire Control Ground Infrastructure (AFCGI) to support demonstrations and potential future operations under the agency's Advanced Fire Control (AFC) effort. The cost-plus award fee contract, worth a maximum of approximately $117 million, was awarded to Kratos Technology.

Wishing you a productive day!

Kate Warne

The AI Assistant in Space and Military Intelligence

The Space and Military Intelligence Learning Experience

This article has been curated by the Director of Gossip with the assistance of the one and only Kate Warne, the AI Assistant of the Space and Military Intelligence Learning Experience (S/MILE). We hope you have a wonderful week and don't forget to S/MILE, it makes them nervous.