Within a single week, the U.S. Space Force committed well over half a billion dollars to new satellite production programs, tapping a mix of established players and rising industry names. The flurry of contracts reflects a deliberate push to harden and expand American military capabilities in geostationary orbit.
Viasat and SES to build the Pentagon's protected tactical network
The largest award went to Viasat and Luxembourg-based operator SES, which will share a $437 million contract to design and build four small geostationary satellites for the Protected Tactical Satcom-Global program, or PTS-G. The program is designed to give U.S. warfighters access to secure, jam-resistant communications from high orbit, reachable anywhere on the planet. The pairing of an American satellite communications specialist with a major European commercial operator on a contract of this sensitivity is notable. It suggests that the Space Force is open to leveraging international industrial partners, provided they operate within a tightly controlled contractual framework governed by U.S. national security requirements.
Rocket Lab lands its first GEO military satellite deal
A separate and symbolically significant award went to Rocket Lab, the New Zealand-founded, U.S.-listed company best known for its Electron small launch vehicle. The Space Force handed Rocket Lab a $90 million contract — its first-ever geostationary satellite production deal from the service — to build and operate two satellites carrying optical payloads. The exact specifications of those payloads have not been publicly disclosed, though a geostationary orbit suggests wide-area observation or surveillance capabilities. For Rocket Lab, which has been actively diversifying beyond launch into spacecraft manufacturing and mission services, the contract represents a meaningful threshold: the company is now formally recognized as a credible supplier for the Pentagon's most demanding orbital programs.
Doubling the force — if training can keep up
These industrial moves are unfolding against a broader institutional backdrop. Space Force Chief of Space Operations General Chance Saltzman has confirmed that the service is on track to double its active-duty personnel by 2030. Established in December 2019 with a core cadre drawn from the U.S. Air Force, the Space Force — whose members are known as Guardians — has grown steadily but faces real structural limits on how fast it can expand. Saltzman was candid about the two main bottlenecks: the throughput of training pipelines and the pace at which new operational units can be stood up and certified for duty. These are not showstoppers, but they are genuine constraints that mean the service's ambitions will have to be matched by patient institutional investment in human capital, not just hardware.
Taken together, this week's announcements paint a picture of a Space Force accelerating on multiple fronts simultaneously — signing contracts for hardware it will need years from now, while working to build the workforce capable of operating it. How well those two tracks stay in sync, and how the service manages relationships with international partners like SES, will shape its credibility well into the next decade.
