Sierra Space Wins SDA T2TL Contract

Ibadan, 17 January 2023. – Sierra Space has announced winning a significant contract by the Space Development Agency (SDA) for 18 missile warning and tracking satellites. The prime contract, valued at $740 million, through an Other Transaction Authority (OTA), is for the design, production, delivery, operations and sustainment of 16 missile warning and tracking satellites and two satellites for missile defense and fire control. The contract also includes two operational ground segments as well.

The satellites are for the portion of SDA’s proliferated space warfighting architecture, the Tranche 2 Tracking Layer (T2TL), part of the Defense Department’s Low Earth Orbit constellation. Sierra Space’s solution will consequently accelerate the capability to provide global, persistent indications, detection, warning, and tracking of conventional and advanced missile threats, including hypersonic missile systems. The company’s solution also delivers preliminary missile defense capability by incorporating fire control quality sensors into the constellation; it will generate fire control quality tracks that enable missile defense kill chains, a critical defense capability for the warfighter.

Speaking on the contract, Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice said, “Given the strength of our experienced mission-driven team, disruptive innovative technologies, employment of differentiated commercial practices, significant investments in systems and infrastructure, and the ability to execute with reliable performance and on-time delivery of warfighting capabilities to orbit, we have secured approximately $1.3 billion in next-generation space-based national security programs.”

This latest contract award makes Sierra Space the SDA’s newest supplier of satellites. The agreement includes a $20 million incentive payment for on-time delivery. The company will develop, integrate and test its space vehicles at Sierra Space’s satellite production facilities in Colorado. Furthermore, the tracking layer satellites carry two configurations of optical sensor payloads built by Sierra Space mission payload partner GEOST.