SDA taps commercial firm for on-orbit tactical SATCOM demonstration
The Space Development Agency announced Monday that AST SpaceMobile has received a contract to conduct an on-orbit demonstration of commercial-based tactical satellite communications capabilities.
The $30 million other transaction agreement was awarded via SDA’s Hybrid Acquisition for Proliferated Low Earth Orbit (HALO) program that focuses on rapidly testing commercial space tools for defense applications. Under the deal, the Texas-headquartered company will put its broadband technology through its paces for high-speed tactical SATCOM.
The award is the first SDA has given to one of the companies in its pool of pre-approved HALO vendors since the program was announced in 2024. During that time, the agency released a list of 19 commercial firms that would be eligible to compete for prototype demonstration task orders to support future development of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA).
AST SpaceMobile’s award is specifically for the HALO Europa Track 2 Commercial Solutions program. The effort is part of the Tranche 2 Demonstration and Experimentation System (T2DES) project — intended to augment the military’s transport layer of communications and data relay satellites.
“The acquisition flexibility afforded by the HALO Europa program leverages commercial investments and enables learning at speed,” Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo, acting director of SDA, said in a statement. “We are now using commercial solutions to quickly demonstrate mission utility, reduce risk for the operational layers of future tranches of the PWSA, and accelerate the delivery of cutting-edge capability to the warfighter.”
AST SpaceMobile will use its dual-use commercial BlueBird satellite constellation for the series of on-orbit demonstrations, which are expected to end by December 2027. The firm specializes in space-based cellular broadband networks that can directly connect to standard smartphones and provide coverage in remote parts of the globe.
According to the company, the upcoming tests with SDA will be designed to validate integration between tactical military radios while also demonstrating how the Defense Department can leverage commercial space infrastructure as a service for sending data.
“Selection for SDA’s Europa Track 2 program validates AST SpaceMobile’s ability to rapidly operationalize commercial space capabilities for national security,” AST SpaceMobile CEO Chris Ivory said in a statement. “By leveraging our existing low Earth orbit (LEO) dual-use satellite technology, we support the government’s defense efforts, delivering immediate connectivity with our BlueBird satellites and scaling quickly to advanced tactical use cases.”
SDA noted in a press release that it expects to award more HALO prototype orders to other vendors “in the near future.”
