“These critical tactical awareness sensors allow the USSF to discern whether maneuverable satellites are being observed, tracked, or targeted,” said Space RCO Director Kelly Hammett.
Space RCO and SpaceWERX award three $3 million SBIR contracts
The Space Rapid Capabilities Office (Space RCO), in partnership with the Space Force innovation arm SpaceWERX, has awarded three small companies contracts worth $3 million apiece to develop radar warning receivers for future geosynchronous satellites. The awards were funded via the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Direct-to-Phase II program, the office said in a press release.
- Assurance Technology Corporation
- Raptor Dynamix
- Innovative Signal Analysis, Inc.
The release described the awards as relatively small but positioned them as components of a broader push to field tactical sensing capability on more agile national security satellites.
Radar warning receivers to detect ground-based radars tracking GEO satellites
The contracted radar warning receivers “will detect and characterize emissions from ground-based radars” that are tracking Space Force satellites in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO), the release explained. Space RCO framed the sensors as improving space domain awareness (SDA) by providing on-board, near-real-time information about whether satellites are being observed, tracked, or targeted.
Space RCO described the effort as promoting what Hammett called real-time “own-ship awareness” for U.S. national security satellites, allowing operators to know when assets are under observation or threat from ground-based sensors.
Connection to Andromeda maneuverable GEO satellites and GSSAP
The new payloads are intended for the Space Force’s next generation of neighborhood-watch satellites in GEO, being developed under the Andromeda program (formerly known as RG-XX). Those satellites will be designed to be more maneuverable, include on-orbit refueling, and maintain a longer on-orbit shelf life than the current Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) constellation, the release said.
Space RCO has previously disclosed limited details about on-board threat warning prototypes: three early prototypes were launched in 2023, first revealed by the office in December 2023. In March 2025, Hammett said those prototypes had been a “quasi-operational success” at monitoring Chinese capabilities to pinpoint the whereabouts of U.S. satellites.
Space RCO’s technical priorities: smaller, cheaper, broader sensing
Space RCO — headquartered at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico and described in the release as a semi-independent acquisition organization created by Congress in 2018 to take requirements directly from operators at U.S. Space Command — said it is focused on lowering size, weight and power (SWaP) demands, improving cost-efficiency, and expanding sensing modalities. The goal is to make tactical SDA sensors small and light enough to be integrated and proliferated across a broader range of smaller, more dynamic U.S. Space Force satellites.
Hammett’s charts last September at the Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance conference showed that follow-on work would include development of small on-board optical payloads for threat warning, indicating the office is pursuing both RF and optical sensing approaches.
What this means for the awarded firms, U.S. operators, and Chinese tracking efforts
- Assurance Technology Corporation, Raptor Dynamix, and Innovative Signal Analysis, Inc. — Each company now has SBIR Direct-to-Phase II funding to mature radar warning receiver technology for GEO satellites. The work is explicitly meant to reduce SWaP and costs so tactical SDA sensors can be integrated on smaller platforms.
- U.S. Space Force operators and U.S. Space Command — Space RCO framed the contracts as delivering improved “own-ship awareness” that operators can use to determine if maneuverable satellites are being observed or targeted, a capability Space RCO says is essential to support military satellite operations.
- Chinese tracking capabilities — Space RCO has already judged early prototypes to be a “quasi-operational success” at monitoring Chinese capabilities that pinpoint U.S. satellites, a fact the office has cited in describing the operational utility of on-board threat warning.
Space RCO signaled continued investment: the office issued a request for information (RFI) on April 20 to identify vendors with mature technologies suitable for potential future SBIR investment, with interested firms given until May 11 to respond. As of last October the office had been planning to make only two awards by the end of 2025, but the recent three awards reflect ongoing adjustments to that plan.
The awards are modest in dollar terms but explicit in purpose: equip the next generation of maneuverable GEO satellites with on-board radar warning receivers and, later, small optical sensors to deliver near-real-time tactical awareness. Whether those sensors can be built to the reduced SWaP and cost targets Space RCO has set — and then integrated across a proliferated fleet — is the next concrete metric to watch. Read the original Breaking Defense report.
