SDA's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) will depend on laser links between satellites and to ground stations to provide high-speed data transport and missile warning, tracking and fire control. (Illustration: Government Accountability Office)
WASHINGTON — The Space Force has awarded California-based startup K2 Space $22.9 million to host tests of new, standardized laser-link terminals being developed under its Enterprise Space Terminal (EST).
The contract, announced July 31, runs through 2028 and covers procurement of the terminals, integration with two of K2’s large satellite buses, and launch. It is being managed by the service’s Space Based Sensing and Targeting portfolio acquisition executive office using fiscal 2025 research and development funds, the announcement said.
Satellite-to-satellite communications via optical links using lasers is at the heart of the Space Force’s future missile warning and tracking architecture being optimized to cover both ballistic and cruise missile launches — to be carried by both the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tracking Layer in low Earth orbit (LEO) and the Space Force’s Resilient Missile Warning-Missile Tracking network in medium-Earth orbit (MEO). Those constellations, in turn, will be foundational for the Pentagon’s ambitious Golden Dome missile defense shield.
