Rocket Lab’s Electron vehicle prepares for launch from Launch Complex 1 with a Rocket Lab Pioneer spacecraft for the U.S. Space Force's Victus Haze mission in June 2026. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force awarded contracts totaling $615 million to Rocket Lab, Systems & Technology Research and a third unidentified company to develop technologies for a satellite network intended to track aircraft and missile threats from orbit.
The firm-fixed-price agreements are the latest awards under the Space-Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator, or SB-AMTI, program, which is being developed to provide the military with persistent tracking over areas where surveillance aircraft may be unable to operate safely.
The Space Force did not disclose how the $615 million was divided among the three companies or specify the technologies each would provide. The awards are intended to expand the program’s supplier base and evaluate different approaches to detecting and tracking airborne targets.
“The core focus of this second task order is diversifying our capabilities and ensuring we don’t rely on a single technical solution. With these new partnerships, we are exploring unique innovations and technologies and fundamentally different ways to accomplish the airborne moving target indication mission,” said Col. Ryan Frazier, acting Space Force portfolio acquisition executive for Space-Based Sensing and Targeting.
