“PTS-G is a key component of the USSF’s resilient SATCOM architecture, designed to provide tactical warfighters with a worldwide, transponded system, leveraging both Protected Tactical Waveform (PTW) and non-PTW waveforms, to provide critical communication to existing legacy wideband users while also deploying PTW to provide anti-jam satellite communications to counter emerging threats and ensure connectivity in denied environments,” the Space Systems Command press release explained.
Space Systems Command awards Swarm-1 production contracts to Viasat and Intelsat
The Space Force announced contracts to Viasat and Intelsat for production of the first two operational satellites under the Protected Tactical SATCOM – Global (PTS-G) program. The two awards, together valued at $437.7 million, cover manufacturing, integration and test, launch, and on-orbit checkout for the pair of satellites collectively dubbed "Swarm-1," according to the Space Systems Command (SSC) press release.
Swarm-1: orbit, bands, and the delivered mission
The Swarm-1 satellites are slated for geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) and are designed to provide limited regional connectivity in the X and military Ka-bands. The SSC description frames the PTS-G effort as a jam-resistant component of a larger tactical communications architecture, intended to give tactical users anti-jam options and to sustain connectivity in contested or denied environments.
PTS-G’s origins, procurement steps, and funding
SSC initiated the PTS-G program in 2025 with a budget of $248 million, establishing it as a new tier within the command’s Protected Anti-Jam Tactical SATCOM (PATS) family of systems. Last July the command issued an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract and five task orders for conceptual designs, worth a total of $37.5 million, awarded to Boeing, Viasat, Northrop Grumman, Astranis and Intelsat. At the time of those design awards, the Space Force hoped to launch the first of the new satellites in 2028.
Budget documents cited by SSC show the service’s fiscal year 2026 research and development funding included almost $237 million for PTS-G, and the fiscal year 2027 request includes $150 million.
Protected Tactical Waveform and the PATS architecture
The PTS-G effort is one component of a broader PATS strategy that SSC describes as moving toward a disaggregated architecture to assume the tactical mission now handled by the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellites. AEHF is characterized in SSC’s materials as providing highly encrypted communications for both strategic and tactical needs. A key technical element under development across PATS is the Protected Tactical Waveform (PTW), an encrypted signal intended eventually to be embedded in payloads on U.S. and allied military satellites and on commercial satellites ("commercial birds"). PTW and non-PTW waveforms are both expected to play roles in a transponded, worldwide tactical communications capability.
What this means for Viasat and Intelsat, Space Systems Command, and tactical warfighters
- Viasat and Intelsat: Both companies move from conceptual-design work into production under the Swarm-1 awards; each contractor is now responsible for delivering satellites through manufacturing, integration, test, launch and on-orbit checkout as described in the SSC release.
- Space Systems Command: SSC has shifted PTS-G from concept to procurement, backed by months of prior task orders and multi-year budget allocations; the immediate program milestones are hardware production, launch preparations and on-orbit verification of the first two GEO assets.
- Tactical warfighters: The stated outcome is a transponded, anti-jam capability that will employ PTW and non-PTW waveforms to preserve communications for legacy wideband users while introducing PTW to counter emerging threats and maintain connectivity in denied environments.
With Swarm-1 now in contracted production, SSC has moved a design-phase effort into the practical work of building, testing and launching GEO satellites meant to harden tactical SATCOM against jamming. The program’s prior timeline included a 2028 launch aspiration; whether that schedule will hold as manufacturing and launch integration proceed will be a central operational and budgetary question for the program moving forward.
