Starshield is the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink service. Photo: SpaceX 

Military forces’ demand for Proliferated Low-Earth Orbit (PLEO) services outstripped what the U.S. Space Force expected, and the service has already divvied out $660 million in communications task orders — the majority to SpaceX‘s Starshield, the military version of Starlink — under the originally envisioned, up to $900 million 10-year contract, a service official said on Thursday.

The result? In the last few months, Space Force increased the $900 million ceiling for the overall contract, a base five years with an option for another five, to $13 billion, the official said.

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and SSC have awarded eligibility contracts to 20 companies for the PLEO services since July last year: SpaceX, Capella Federal; BlackSky Geospatial Solutions; SES’s DRS Global Enterprise Solutions; Hughes Network Systems; Inmarsat Government; Amazon’s Kuiper Government Services; Intelsat; OneWeb Technologies; ARINC; Artel; PAR Government; RiteNet Corp; Satcom Direct; Trace Systems; UltiSat; Honeywell’s aerospace division, AT&T; Iridium Communications; and Lynk Global, Inc.

The commercial PLEO contract is to provide low-latency for military mission areas, such as communications and imagery, for space, air, land, sea and cyber forces.

This story was first published by Defense Daily