TL;DRSpaceX won a $4.16B Space Force contract for missile-tracking satellites. Combined with a $2.29B deal from Tuesday, it holds $6.45B in Golden Dome work.
The US Space Force awarded SpaceX a $4.16 billion contract on Friday to build satellites that track foreign aircraft and missiles. The programme is called Space-Based Advanced Moving Target Indicator, or SB-AMTI. It is part of the Trump administration’s $185 billion Golden Dome missile defence initiative.
Two days earlier, the Space Force awarded SpaceX $2.29 billion for the Space Data Network Backbone, a secure communications layer built on Starshield satellites. Combined, SpaceX now holds approximately $6.45 billion in Golden Dome contracts. That figure exceeds the combined prototype awards given to every other company in the programme.
The AMTI satellites are designed as an interconnected system combining space-based sensors, secure communications links, and AI-enabled ground processing. The system will detect, track, and alert for airborne threats from orbit. The US has historically relied on ground-based sensors and military aircraft for this function.
Placing detection capabilities in space eliminates potential blind spots that ground-based systems cannot cover. The Space Force described the architecture as designed to “drive closer cooperation across the government space industrial base.” SpaceX must integrate the AMTI sensors with the data transport backbone it is already building under the separate $2.29 billion contract.
