Summary: The U.S. Space Force’s Acting Portfolio Acquisition Executive, Satellite Communications & Positioning, Navigation, and Timing announced today the award of two contracts totaling $437.7 million for the production of the Protected Tactical Satellite Communications (SATCOM) – Global (PTS-G) program's first satellites to provide anti-jam satellite communications to counter emerging threats and ensure connectivity in denied environments.
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – The U.S. Space Force's Acting Portfolio Acquisition Executive, Satellite Communications & Positioning, Navigation, and Timing announced today the award of two Firm Fixed Price contracts for the Protected Tactical SATCOM – Global (PTS-G) program. The awards, totaling $437.7 million, were made to Viasat Inc. and Intelsat General Communications LLC to produce the first two operational satellites of the PTS-G system, known as “Swarm 1,” which includes manufacturing, integration and test, launch, and on-orbit checkout. PTS-G is a key component of the USSF's resilient SATCOM architecture, designed to provide tactical warfighters with a worldwide, transponded system, leveraging both Protected Tactical Waveform (PTW) and non-PTW waveforms, to provide critical communication to existing legacy wideband users while also deploying PTW to provide anti-jam satellite communications to counter emerging threats and ensure connectivity in denied environments.
“PTS-G is a pivotal element of the Space Force’s strategy to deliver a more resilient and capable satellite communications architecture,” said Erin Carper, acting portfolio acquisition executive for Satellite Communications & Positioning, Navigation, and Timing. “By leveraging commercial innovation and a novel competitive approach, Space Systems Command is accelerating the delivery of critical worldwide, anti-jam capabilities to the warfighter, ensuring they can operate effectively in the face of determined adversaries.”
Operating in geosynchronous orbit, Swarm 1 will deliver critical capability to existing military SATCOM capacity and enhance operational flexibility for combatant commanders. The system features a transponded design that utilizes dedicated military Ka-band and X-band payloads. It also provides comprehensive backward compatibility with legacy Tactical SATCOM systems, ensuring PTS-G will provide critical worldwide communications to existing wideband users while establishing a cost-effective path to modernizing the force.
Additionally, PTS-G’s transponded design and backward compatibility secondarily provides a resilient layer of communications by utilizing the Protected Tactical Waveform, or PTW. This enables advanced anti-jam capabilities, ensuring warfighters maintain the freedom of communication and connectivity in denied environments, as well as the freedom to operate in contested environments anytime, anywhere.
Lt. Col. Richard Lanser, acting system program director for Tactical SATCOM at SSC’s System Delta 88, highlighted the value of the program’s strategy. “These awards represent a significant step forward in Space Systems Command’s commitment to acquisition transformation,” Lanser said. “PTS-G’s acquisition approach leverages commercial industry and technologies to revitalize the defense industrial base, maximize flexibility and foster enduring competition to ensure long-term affordability. These innovations allow the Space Force to outpace emerging threats and deliver the resilient space capabilities our warfighters need at the speed of relevance.”
The approach for Swarm 1 exemplifies acquisition transformation by leveraging a competitive strategy with commercial partners to accelerate delivery of capabilities while driving down long-term costs. It underscores Space Systems Command’s overarching mission to deliver space capabilities that ensure U.S. space superiority and deter aggression in the space domain.
Space Systems Command is the U.S. Space Force field command responsible for acquiring, developing, and delivering resilient capabilities to outpace emerging threats and protect our Nation’s strategic advantage in, from, and to space. SSC manages a $15.6 billion annual space acquisition budget for the Department of War, working with joint forces, industry partners, government agencies, academia, and allied nations. For more information, visit ssc.spaceforce.mil and follow @USSF-SSC on LinkedIn.
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