Millennium Space Systems Nabs $414M SDA Award for FOO Fighter Satellites
Concept of Millennium’s FOO Fighter constellation. Image: Millennium Space Systems
The Space Development Agency (SDA) on Tuesday awarded a potential $414 million contract to Boeing’s Millennium Space Systems unit to build and deliver eight missile defense fire control satellites for launch in late 2026 as part of a demonstration effort.
The firm fixed-price award is the first for Millennium with SDA and was made under the Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter (FOO Fighter) program, which is part of the agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA).
L3Harris Technologies will provide the payload for Millennium’s satellites.
Millennium said it will also deliver a ground system and perform mission operations.
FOO Fighter, which SDA also calls F2, will be a prototype satellite constellation that the agency says “will accelerate the ability to provide fire control in support of global detection, warning, and precision tracking of advanced missile threats, including hypersonic missile systems.”
SDA in December asked for bids for the Other Transaction Authority agreement, and sought satellites with electro-optical/infrared sensors. SDA declined to discuss specifics of F2’s fire control capabilities because the program is largely classified.
F2 is distinct from the tracking layer missile warning, tracking, and defense satellites that SDA has been awarding contract for under separate tranches but is still complementary as part of the PWSA.
“The FOO Fighter program will provide an operational demonstration of fire control efforts separate from, but complementary to, our missile warning/missile tracking and missile defense efforts already underway in the tranches,” Derek Tournear, SDA director, said in a statement. “We look forward to working with Millennium, a new teammate in the expanding marketplace of performers innovating to deliver the PWSA for the warfighter.”
Jason Kim, Millennium’s CEO, said in a statement that “Our deep knowledge and understanding of this mission enabled us to engineer the right solution at the right costs, taking advantage of our common sensing vehicle and core components. The mission engineering we’ve done is grounded in modeling and simulation exercises, allowing us to understand the payload and its applicability to mission execution.”