U.S. awards $1.75 billion in contracts for 36 missile-defense satellites to be ready in 2028

The Space Development Agency awarded contracts worth a total of $1.75 billion to L3Harris Technologies and Sierra Space to develop 36 satellites for missile warning, tracking, and targeting. The satellites, designated Accelerated Missile Defense Tranche 3 space vehicles, are scheduled to be ready for launch in 2028.

President Donald Trump has mandated that the Golden Dome missile defense shield be operational that year.

L3Harris Technologies received a contract worth up to about $955 million to provide 18 Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor-like missile defense variant satellites across two orbital planes. The satellites will keep eyes on both ballistic and hypersonic missiles and provide precise targeting data to interceptors.

SDA’s missile warning and missile tracking satellites carry wide field-of-view infrared cameras that can spot missiles at launch and follow them in flight over a large volume of space. Satellites designated missile defense variants carry more precise medium field-of-view cameras that generate data suitable for providing interceptors with targeting coordinates.

The contracts were announced on Monday.

The new satellites are being developed under an accelerated schedule to meet the Pentagon’s 2028 plans for demonstrating its Golden Dome missile defense shield. Previous SDA Tranche 3 Tracking Layer contracts were awarded in December 2025 to L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Rocket Lab for up to $3.

Jeff Schrader, chief financial officer at Sierra Space, stated that the contracts allow the company to go on the record that the work is helping with the Golden Dome architecture.