The U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency (SDA) wants a ground segment integrator for the agency’s future Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA)–a network of optically-linked satellites in low Earth orbit that are to spur rapid targeting and detection of adversary missile launches.
Last month, SDA released a draft solicitation for PWSA-Futures Program (PFP) Ground Segment Integration (PGI), and on Jan. 11 the agency posted a revised draft solicitation that establishes an award fee structure for the winning contractor on a variety of criteria, including staying on budget and executing “consistent process and capabilities to identify and proactively resolve software security vulnerabilities in the development cycle prior to formal test events by employing repeatable processes for software assurance.”
SDA is to hold a virtual industry day with interested companies on Jan. 31 and plans to award a PGI contract by the third quarter of this year. PGI is expected to support SDA Tranche 2 satellites, which are to go on orbit in 2026.
“It is anticipated that the initial PFP ground segment is required to support a launch in June 2026,” SDA said.
A winning contractor for PGI would “deliver a ground segment to provide a service for managing shared ground resources; fit-out and manage a government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) facility called the Demonstration Operations Center (DOC); and provide a structured environment for cloud-based system integration and data processing,” according to SDA.
“The overall goal of the PGI acquisition is to provide a common, enduring ground infrastructure and resources to minimize cost and complexity for PFP space vehicle demonstration and experimentation programs,” per the agency.
It is anticipated that the initial PFP ground segment is required to support a launch in June 2026.
Making the Tranche 1 ground segment “multilingual” to make sense of the data from various contractors’ satellites in the Tranche 1 Transport Layer, Tracking Layer, and T1DES is a significant technical challenge, an SDA official said in May 2022 upon SDA’s $324.5 million award to a General Dynamics [GD] and Iridium Communications Inc. [IRDM] team for the Tranche 1 ground operations and integration segment (Defense Daily, May 27, 2022).
The General Dynamics/Iridium team is to provide the necessary network operations and command and control for SDA satellite operations centers at Grand Forks AFB, N.D., and Redstone Arsenal, Ala., to tie together the Tranche 1 satellite constellations.