The Government Accountability Office (GAO) contends that achieving the minimum viable product (MVP) standard for two-year satellite tranches could help save the U.S. Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) hundreds of millions of dollars over 10 years.
“In February 2025, GAO made three recommendations for the Air Force to demonstrate the minimum viable product for laser communications capability in space Tranche 0, 1, and 2 before proceeding with subsequent launch decisions,” according to GAO’s just-issued annual report on duplication within federal agencies.
“The Department of Defense concurred with GAO’s recommendations with comments indicating they were already taking these actions and incorporating lessons learned into future iterations,” the annual study said. “While GAO agrees they are incorporating some lessons learned, they have not demonstrated the minimum viable product which would help them fully understand whether the technology works as intended. GAO maintains the recommendations are warranted.”
GAO’s February report, Laser Communications: Space Development Agency Should Create Links Between Development Phases (GAO 25-106838), said that four evaluated contractors for the Tranche 0 satellites have only met standards four times out of 32 in eight optical communications terminal (OCT) categories (Defense Daily, Feb. 27).
SpaceX hit the mark three times–in the category of Tracking Layer space-to-space laser links among SpaceX satellites in the same orbital plane, Tracking Layer space-to-space data transmission among SpaceX satellites in the same orbital plane, and Tracking Layer space-to-ground laser links.
York Space Systems passed muster in the Transport Layer space-to-space laser links among York satellites, while Lockheed Martin [LMT] and L3Harris Technologies [LHX] did not hit any of the marks, according to GAO’s February study.
“In commenting on the report after issuance, in March 2025, SDA officials said that Tranche 0 was a prototype, did not have a minimum viable product, and was not necessary for subsequent development,” according to GAO’s just-issued annual duplication report. “Further, they stated that Tranche 0 demonstrated initial capability for Tranche 1. This is a significant change from the way SDA previously characterized both Tranches 0 and 1 in planning documents and other sources. Specifically, planning documents from 2021 and SDA’s website in March 2025 identified the minimum viable product of Tranche 0 as forming a foundation for development in future tranches.”
“Additionally, the minimum viable product for Tranche 1, as identified in its planning documents, described a larger laser-based network that relies on capability not yet demonstrated by Tranche 0,” the report said.
SDA Director Derek Tournear said last October “that SDA is no longer planning to develop an MVP, rather that the agency considers the MVP to be equivalent to the MVC [minimum viability capability].”
GAO said that an example of MVC would be the amount of global coverage expected for a satellite constellation, while MVP would be the number of satellites required to provide such coverage.
The just-issued GAO annual duplication report said that GAO “cannot precisely estimate the potential savings from implementation of” the agency’s recommendations “because, while SDA has identified planned spending through 2029, specific savings opportunities are not yet known.”
“However, if implementing GAO’s recommendations produces even one percent of savings, SDA could save hundreds of millions of dollars over 10 years,” GAO said. “For example, if SDA implements GAO’s recommendations to wait until it demonstrates minimum viable products in each tranche of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture effort, it could postpone production of future tranches until later years, avoiding costly rework based on designs that do not meet necessary capabilities.”