Taking lessons learned from the development and acquisition of the initial Proliferate Space Warfighter Architecture (PWSA), the Space Development Agency (SDA) this week awarded Science Applications International Corp. [SAIC] a potential $54.9 million contact to be the integrator for the Tranche 3 portion of the architecture.
SAIC’s role is a new one under the program. General Dynamics’ [GD] Mission Systems division previously won a contract to establish the Ground, Management, and Integration framework for Tranches 1 and 2 of PWSA.
Under the five-year cost-plus award fee Tranche 3 Program Integration (TP3I) contract, SAIC will provide various systems engineering and integration tasks such as develop verification products, coordinating test events for space vehicles, coordinating product reviews, configuration management, and create, manage, and maintain a T3 program delivery schedule across all satellite vendors within the tranche.
SAIC’s support will enable “the delivery of Tranche 3 Space Vehicle Transport, Tracking, and Custody Layers and their integration within the PWSA Ground Segment,” SDA said in an April 22 award notice.
SDA recently released a request for proposals for the Tranche 3 satellites, which consist of communications spacecraft—called the Transport Layer—and missile detection and tracking birds—called the Tracking Layer. Awards are expected later this year.
A small fleet of Tracking and Transport Layer satellites are already on orbit under the Tranche 0 phase of PWSA. The launch of Tranche 1 spacecraft was originally planned for last fall but various delays, including supply chain challenges, have moved the start of those launches until late this summer.
“With the spiral development model, SDA continuously pushes lessons learned into subsequent tranches,” an SDA spokesperson told Defense Daily. “SDA decided to contract with a Tranche 3 integrator based on lessons learned from acquiring and delivery of Tranche 1 and 2.”
SDA said five offers were received for the T3PI effort. The government obligated an initial $6 million in fiscal year 2025 research and development funds at the time of the award.