The Pentagon's Space Development Agency on Monday awarded $1.5 billion in contracts to Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman for prototype communications satellites.
Lockheed and Northrop will each build 36 of the prototype satellites, scheduled to begin launching by September 2026.
Those "Tranche 0" satellites were the first effort to demonstrate the feasibility of SDA's network.
In addition to communications, the SDA network aims to provide the U.S. military with features such as missile warning and tracking capabilities.
SDA has previously awarded contracts to build and operate satellites in its fleet to York Space, SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and L3Harris .
Persons:
Lockheed Martin, Northrop, Northrop Grumman
Organizations:
Space Development Agency, Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, Northrop, SDA, CNBC, Pentagon, Space Force, Department of Defense's, Command, Control, SpaceX