A SpaceX Falcon 9 loaded with a Tranche 0 payload variant for the Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) stands on the launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. (Space Development Agency)

The Space Development Agency (SDA) has begun development of a prototype for a new payload system for fire control missions, part of the agency’s launch of the latest satellite variant of its Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA).

Prototype variants of the Warlock fire control mission payload will be included in the mission loadout of the new Gamma variant satellites for Tranche 2 of the PWSA’s Transport Layer constellation, an SDA statement said.

In August, agency officials awarded the $424 million development contract for 20 Tranche 2 Transport Layer (T2TL) Gamma satellites to Colorado-based York Space Systems and California-based Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems.

Under the terms of the fixed-price Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreements, each company will build ten T2TL-Gamma satellite prototypes, for a total of 20 T2TL-Gamma spacecraft (SVs) and payloads.

York Space Systems’ share of the OTA contract is worth about $170 million, while Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems will receive $245 million under the T2TL-Gamma deal. In addition to the Warlock payload, SDA program managers are developing other prototype applications for the Gamma variant satellites.

In addition to the Warlock payload, York Space Systems and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems will produce a Ka-band mission payload and subsystem prototypes for data network routing, signal encryption, and platform navigation, according to the T2TL-Gamma Industry Solicitation published in December 2023.

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