WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX a $4.16 billion contract to build a constellation of satellites designed to track airborne targets from orbit, marking one of the Pentagon’s biggest bets yet on shifting battlefield surveillance missions from aircraft to space.
The agreement, announced May 29, covers the first increment of a space-based Air Moving Target Indicator, or AMTI, network. The program is intended to detect, track and maintain custody of airborne targets including fighter aircraft, bombers, cruise missiles and potentially hypersonic weapons.
The Space Systems Command said the award, issued through an Other Transaction Authority agreement, is intended to accelerate deployment of a space-based sensing layer capable of tracking airborne threats on a global basis.
The contract represents a significant step in a broader Pentagon effort to move military sensing functions traditionally performed by aircraft into proliferated satellite constellations. Military officials argue that satellites can provide broader coverage and greater survivability as adversaries field sophisticated anti-access and area-denial capabilities.
The Space Force has not disclosed how many satellites SpaceX will build, but officials have said the architecture will consist of a proliferated constellation in low Earth orbit.
According to the Space Systems Command, the initial award is expected to field a satellite constellation by 2028 and provide the military with an early operational capability.
The award comes days after the Space Force selected SpaceX for a separate $2.29 billion contract to build the Space Data Network backbone, a mesh communications constellation intended to move data across military satellite networks. Together, the awards give SpaceX a central role in two key elements of the Pentagon’s emerging space architecture: sensing and communications.
Although the Air Force is not preparing to retire its airborne surveillance fleets, military officials increasingly view space-based systems as a necessary complement to aircraft such as the E-3 AWACS and E-7 Wedgetail.
“The long-standing method of military airborne platforms to track moving targets faces continued challenges as adversaries develop increasingly sophisticated anti-access, area-denial systems,” the Space Systems Command said. “To complement traditional airborne sensing, the requirement for a layered, highly resilient tracking architecture is evident.”
The AMTI effort is intended to provide that additional layer. The system would combine satellites, communications links and ground infrastructure into a network capable of tracking airborne targets from orbit.
Col. Ryan Frazier, the acting Space Force portfolio acquisition executive for space-based sensing and targeting, said development and integration work would begin immediately in order to meet aggressive deployment timelines.
The Space Force has emphasized that SpaceX will not be the sole supplier. Frazier said the service has established a pool of vendors eligible to compete for future Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity procurements supporting the AMTI architecture.
“We will not leverage any one single provider,” Frazier said. Instead, the service plans to draw on a mix of traditional defense contractors and newer commercial space companies.
While SpaceX is currently the only publicly identified AMTI contractor, Frazier said the company’s award establishes an initial capability and that additional awards are expected over the next year as the Space Force expands the architecture.
The satellites are expected to be built using SpaceX’s Starshield platform, the government-focused variant of its Starlink broadband network. Starshield systems are designed specifically for national security missions and are operated by the U.S. government.
The Defense Department’s fiscal 2027 budget proposal seeks $7.1 billion for AMTI. Budget documents describe the effort as a high-band radar system intended to detect and track airborne targets while expanding coverage from regional areas toward a global capability.
