CARLSBAD, CA — Reflecting a major shift in military procurement strategy, U.S. Space Systems Command (SSC) has officially moved its Protected Tactical SATCOM-Global (PTS-G) program into full production.
Leading the charge is satellite communications giant Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT), which announced it has been selected as a prime contractor under the Space Force’s highly anticipated Swarm 1 Delivery Order.
The multi-year development award tasks Viasat with the manufacturing, launch, and operations of an advanced, small, maneuverable Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite designed to deliver resilient, anti-jam tactical communications to the warfighter.
Moving from Design to the Factory Floor
The Swarm 1 contract follows Viasat’s successful completion of the Delivery Order 1 (DO1) design-maturation phase in 2025. During that preliminary stage, the company proved out its concept for a low Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) mini-GEO platform and integrated ground network architecture capable of dynamically targeting orbital “hot spots.”
Under the newly awarded production contract, Viasat’s Space and Mission Systems (SMS) team will manufacture a dual-band spacecraft utilizing dedicated military X-band and Ka-band payloads.
Crucially, the satellite’s hardware design relies heavily on dual-use technology heritage adapted from Viasat’s commercial ViaSat-3 fleet. This strategy allows the Space Force to bypass the prolonged, decade-long R&D cycles that plagued legacy defense satellites, deploying high-performance capabilities at commercial speed.
“We are excited to partner with the USSF on this foundational work supporting next-generation government space operations,” said John Reeves, Vice President of Space and Mission Systems at Viasat Government. “Our flexible dual-band X/Ka-band satellite is designed to enable critical operations and mission outcomes—supporting global connectivity, increasing resilience, and improving warfighters’ ability to combat emerging threats.”
The “Swarm” Doctrine: Dismantling Monolithic Targets
The PTS-G program serves as a cornerstone of the U.S. Space Force’s overarching strategy to transition away from low-number, multi-billion-dollar “exquisite” satellite systems, such as the aging Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) constellation.
In an era defined by rapid adversarial developments in electronic warfare, signal jamming, and anti-satellite weaponry, high-value, static satellites are increasingly viewed as high-stakes liabilities. The Space Force’s emerging doctrine replaces these massive single points of failure with a distributed, proliferated network of smaller, cheaper, and highly agile spacecraft operating collectively as a “swarm.”
By deploying a fleet of nimble, maneuverable mini-GEO satellites, the military ensures that if a single satellite is jammed, degraded, or physically threatened, the remaining orbital nodes can dynamically adjust and reposition to maintain a continuous baseline of theater communications.
The overarching PTS-G program features an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract framework with a massive $4 billion ceiling distributed across approved vendors to maximize long-term competition and industrial readiness. For the initial Swarm 1 phase, the Space Force awarded a combined $437.7 million to be split between Viasat and competitor Intelsat General Communications to produce the first two operational satellites of the system.
Comprehensive Operational Scope
Viasat’s prime contract extends far beyond the hardware inside the fairing. The Swarm 1 award dictates an end-to-end mission delivery model, requiring Viasat to provide full ground station infrastructure alongside five years of continuous operations and sustainment services.
This comprehensive operational package includes:
- Tracking, Telemetry, and Command (TT&C) handling.
- Dedicated spacecraft and network mission routing.
- Strict compliance with rigid military cybersecurity protections.
To protect legacy defense infrastructure investments, the transponded PTS-G satellite is engineered with comprehensive backward compatibility for existing wideband hardware. Secondarily, it implements the military’s heavily fortified Protected Tactical Waveform (PTW), establishing an advanced anti-jamming shield that secures freedom of communication even within highly contested or denied electronic environments.
According to program parameters released by Space Systems Command, Viasat’s dual-band satellite system is scheduled to meet initial operating capability no earlier than 2029.
