The 18 Rocket Lab USA [RKLB] satellites for the U.S. Space Force Space Development Agency’s Tranche 2, Transport Layer (T2TL)-Beta are to have standard tactical satellite communications (SATCOM) links, as SDA looks to a future award for T2TL-Gamma satellites with advanced tactical data links.
“The 18 space vehicles being purchased from Rocket Lab as part of T2TL-Beta will carry standard tactical SATCOM radios to enhance Tranche 2’s global coverage,” SDA said in a Jan. 9 email. “Separately, SDA plans to solicit and procure approximately 20 T2TL-Gamma advanced tactical SATCOM space vehicles, pending fiscal year 2024 funding. This advanced tactical SATCOM capability is related to, but spectrally different from, the capability being deployed by the Beta space vehicles.”
SDA announced an up to $515 million award to Rocket Lab for the T2TL-Beta satellites on Jan. 8–an award that would bring the total planned T2TL-Beta constellation to 90, including 72 Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Northrop Grumman [NOC] satellites (Defense Daily, Jan. 8).
SDA has planned on fielding 44 T2TL-Gamma satellites with advanced tactical data links, but Tournear told Silicon Valley Space Week’s Milsat Symposium last October that the requirement had changed to 24 Gamma satellites, as SDA was in discussions with a third, possible T2TL-Beta vendor to put advanced tactical data links on 20 additional Beta satellites (Defense Daily, Oct. 30, 2023).
The Jan. 9 SDA statement would mean that the agency’s plan has reverted to fielding advanced tactical data links on the Gamma satellites, not on the Beta satellites.
The earlier T2TL-Alpha satellites are to transmit beyond line-of-sight Link 16 data to military forces from space, while T2TL-Beta satellites are to transmit over Ultra High Frequency S-band for tactical satellite communications.
T2TL satellites, which are to begin launches in September 2026, are to have three optical communications terminals (OCTs), and the Gamma satellites are to add a fourth OCT and a classified “Warlock mission payload,” SDA has said. The T2TL-Gamma satellites are to launch by June 1, 2027.