WASHINGTON \u2015 The Space Rapid Capabilities Office (Space RCO), in partnership with the Space Force\u2019s innovation arm SpaceWERX, has awarded three small companies contracts worth $3 million each to develop new radar warning receivers to equip future highly maneuverable satellites in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO).<\/p>\n
The awards to Assurance Technology Corporation, Raptor Dynamix and Innovative Signal Analysis, Inc. are being funded via the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Direct-to-Phase II program, according to a Space RCO press release today.<\/p>\n
The radar warning receivers \u201cwill detect and characterize emissions from ground-based radars\u201d tracking Space Force satellites in GEO, thus improving the service\u2019s space domain awareness <\/a>capabilities, the release explained. <\/p>\n \u201cThese critical tactical awareness sensors allow the USSF to discern whether maneuverable satellites are being observed, tracked, or targeted,\u201d said\u00a0Space RCO Director Kelly Hammett. \u201cIn the modern orbital environment, it is essential to know if your assets are being threatened. This kind of information should really be considered standard to support military satellite operations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Space Force\u2019s next generation of neighborhood watch satellites in GEO, being developed under the Andromeda program (formerly known as\u00a0RG-XX<\/a>), will\u00a0be capable of on-orbit refueling as part of their overall design to be more maneuverable while maintaining a longer on-orbit shelf life than the service\u2019s current\u00a0Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP)<\/a>\u00a0constellation.<\/p>\n Headquartered at Kirtland AFB in New Mexico, Space RCO is a semi-independent acquisition organization created by Congress in 2018 to take requirements directly from operators at US Space Command and find ways to quickly get capabilities, including cutting-edge commercial tech, into the field. Much of the office\u2019s work is classified.<\/p>\n Space RCO first revealed in December 2023<\/a> that three early prototypes for on-board threat warning had been launched 2023, although details were scant due to the classified nature of the effort. In March 2025<\/a>, Hammett said the prototypes had been a \u201cquasi-operational success\u201d at monitoring Chinese capabilities to pinpoint the whereabouts of US satellites. As of last October<\/a>, the office had been planning on making only two awards by the end of 2025. <\/p>\n While small, the awards are part of a larger effort to promote what the Hammett calls real-time \u201cown-ship awareness\u201d for US national security satellites.<\/p>\n Space RCO \u201cis now focused on lowering size, weight and power demands, improving cost-efficiency, and expanding the sensing modalities to ensure tactical SDA [space domain awareness] sensors can be integrated and proliferated across a broader range of smaller, more dynamic USSF satellites,\u201d the announcement noted.<\/p>\n According to charts Hammett presented last September<\/a> during the annual Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance conference in Hawaii, the follow-on effort would include development of small on-board optical payloads for threat warning.<\/p>\n