Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach and Rocket Lab USA in Long Beach were awarded $1.6 billion in contracts this month to build missile defense satellites for the U.S. Space Force's Tranche 3 of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture. This photo shows an artist's rendering of Northrop Grumman's Tranche 2 Transport Layer satellites in orbit. Courtesy of news.northropgrumman.com

By TYLER SHAUN EVAINS | Southern California News Group

Satellite builders in Redondo Beach and Long Beach will work on $1.6 billion in projects with the U.S. Space Force to continue developing its missile tracking satellite network, the U.S. Space Development Agency announced recently.

Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach and Rocket Lab USA in Long Beach were awarded the contracts, worth $1.6 billion, to build missile warning, tracking and defense satellite sensors for the U.S. Space Development Agency's communication satellite network for homeland defense, called the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.

It's part of a total $3.5 billion agreement with the Space Development Agency and four companies in California and Indiana to create 72 space vehicles for the low-orbit, tracking layer "constellation" of the third limb of the satellite network, which is set to launch in 2029.

The Space Development Agency is a unit of the U.S. Space Force that deploys disruptive space technology that makes space sector operations cheaper, faster and more autonomous.

The Redondo Beach company has a $764 million agreement to build missile warning and tracking infrared sensors, and the Long Beach company has an $805 million agreement for missile warning, tracking and defense sensors, according to the announcement.

The missile tracking satellites began launching in 2024 and will continue in phases, with the second set to begin in 2027 and a third in 2029, according to SDA documents, the latter of which the local companies are working on. The entire network is made of hundreds of small satellites in low-earth orbit for quick and resilient military communication.

The satellites are meant to provide continuous global coverage for missile warning and tracking, the announcement said, supporting the Space Force's defense missions to pace evolving threats in space.

Companies Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale and L3Harris Technologies in Fort Wayne, Indiana, will also build and operate the satellites, per the SDA's announcement, with those companies awarded $1.1 billion and $843 million in contracts, respectively. Each, including Northrop Grumman and Rocket Lab USA, will build 18 satellites, the announcement said.