SDA posts Tranche 2 Transport Layer Gamma solicitation

The Space Development Agency posted the solicitation for the next stage of its Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture yesterday, less than one week after Congress finally passed its fiscal year 2024 appropriations bill.

The Tranche 2 Transport Layer Gamma variant will include about 20 satellites with four optical communication terminals and the Warlock mission payload. It will join the T2TL Alpha and Beta variants in having Ka-band mission payloads, notworking and data routing subsystems, navigation subsystems and S-band telemetry, tracking and control subsystems.

Unlike several other SDA solicitations, the agency only plans on awarding one contract for the Gamma variant.

SDA had been waiting for Congress to pass an FY-24 appropriation before it could post the solicitation, Director Derek Tournear said at various events over the past few months. Because the government was operating under a continuing resolution for nearly six months, SDA hadn’t been able to post the Gamma solicitation or award the Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter, or FOO Fighter, program.

FOO Fighter had been in source selection at the time of Tournear’s remarks at the Defense and Intelligence Space Conference at the end of February.

SDA plans to award the contract for Gamma in August, according to the solicitation, and the satellites are scheduled to launch by July 2027.