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The Tracking Layer | SDA's $3.5B Missile-Warning Constellation
$3.5B72 sats · FY2029
Tranche 3 split $3.5B across Rocket Lab, L3Harris, Lockheed, and Northrop for 72 missile-tracking satellites. Rocket Lab's $816M is its largest contract ever. The proliferated-LEO defense buildout in a single award.
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Amazon Leo | Racing the FCC Clock It Set Itself
396 sats launchedFCC deadline passed Jul 30
Formerly Kuiper, with 396 production satellites launched across 14 missions and enterprise beta live. Amazon reached the July 30 FCC deployment deadline short of its licence milestone and sought an extension. The second mover racing the license it already holds.
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The SATCOM Augmentation Scramble | Commercial Capacity for milSATCOM
Sources SoughtClosed Jul 2026
Space RCO is sounding the market to harden military SATCOM against jamming and outage by buying commercial capacity. Where commercial constellations plug into the defense comms layer, and who is positioned to sell.
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NSSL Phase 3 | The $13.7B Launch Backbone
$13.7B54 missions 2027-2032
SpaceX ($5.9B), ULA ($5.4B), and Blue Origin ($2.4B) split the National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 2 ceiling. The contracts that decide who lofts the next five years of defense payloads.
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IRIS² | Europe's €10.6B Sovereign Constellation
€10.6BDeployment from 2026
The EU's answer to Starlink and a NATO-partner alternative for secure connectivity. SpaceX deployment begins in 2026 while Europe builds toward sovereign control of its own orbital comms.
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The Transport Layer | SDA's Data Mesh in Orbit
Tranche 3FY2029 mesh
The companion to the tracking layer: a proliferated mesh moving targeting data between satellites and shooters in seconds. Where optical intersatellite links become a defense procurement category of their own.
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The Navy's Commercial Imagery Play | Optimizing Across Vendors
SBIR 1/2Closed Jul 2026
Two live Navy SBIR solicitations, one to optimize satellite imagery across commercial vendors and one for intra-satellite communications. The service buying its way to a multi-source orbital ISR picture.
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Vandenberg Opens the Range | West Coast Launch Capacity RFI
RFIClosed Jul 2026
Space Force is sounding industry on Vandenberg Space Force Base capacity as the West Coast manifest tightens. Who gets pad time when polar and sun-synchronous demand outruns supply.
EDITORIAL STEM
The Other Constellations | Telesat Lightspeed and OneWeb
198 + 650 satsEnterprise + hybrid
Beyond Starlink and Amazon, Telesat Lightspeed targets enterprise and military Ka-band while Eutelsat OneWeb runs the only GEO-LEO hybrid. The LEO broadband market is not a two-horse race yet.