While available documents did not detail how many ARRW missiles the Air Force intends to buy, the request officially transitions the hypersonic weapon from its troubled development and testing phase and into formal procurement and production. The move comes after the Air Force considered cancelling the program last year after it completed its rapid prototyping effort in August 2024.

Made by prime contractor Lockheed Martin, ARRW is one of the two types of hypersonic weapons the Air Force’s is pursuing — the other being the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM), under development by RTX-subsidiary Raytheon.

ARRW is a boost-glide missile that can be launched from larger aircraft such as the B-52 Stratofortress bomber, and like all hypersonics can fly at speeds of Mach 5 or faster and maneuver during flight.

The fate of ARRW has been up in the air since March 2024 when the Air Force announced it didn’t include any funds to procure the missiles in its budget request for fiscal 2025. The decision was not a surprise, as the program faced a series of setbacks during its development phase — including at least one failed all-up-round flight test that occurred in 2023.

At the time, Air Force leadership said they would pause the ARRW program to analyze the data gathered during its flight test campaign, while also shifting focus to the development of HACM.

But news that ARRW was no longer on the chopping block was first hinted at by Gen. David Allvin, the service’s chief of staff, earlier this month during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

“I will tell you that we are developing — and you’ll see in the budget submission, assuming it’s what we put forward — two different programs. One is a larger form factor that is more strategic [and] long range that we have already tested several times — it’s called ARRW. The other is HACM,” Allvin told lawmakers June 5.

The Air Force first awarded Lockheed Martin a contract worth up to $480 million to design and develop ARRW. Since then, the service has spent roughly $1.4 billion in research-and-development funds on the hypersonic weapon.

As for HACM, the Air Force is requesting $802.8 million in fiscal 2026 to continue the missile’s development, according to budget documents. The service received $466.7 million in FY’25 appropriations, and the increase in funds for this year are likely due to the program entering its flight test phase in the near future.

The Air Force intends to conduct five flight tests for HACM — two less than the service originally planned for — before the program begins rapid fielding efforts in fiscal 2027. The reduction in tests was caused by delays in nailing down the weapon’s hardware design, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office. 

Development of hypersonic missiles is considered a top priority for the Defense Department, especially as adversaries continue to advance their own weapons. Overall, the DOD is requesting over $3.9 billion in FY’26 across a number of programs at different stages of development, a defense official told reporters Thursday during a briefing at the Pentagon.

Along with the Air Force’s programs, those funds would also contribute to fielding the first operational battery of the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) — also known as Dark Eagle — by the end of FY’25 and continued development of the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) system.

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Air Force officials overseeing HACM told the Government Accountability Office that the program’s first design review was held in September 2024 — six months later than expected — because more time was needed to nail down the missile’s hardware design. As a result, the service will only have time to conduct five flight tests for HACM before it begins rapid fielding efforts in fiscal 2027.

“Program officials said that the delays will reduce the number of flight tests the program can conduct during the 5-year rapid prototyping effort from seven to five,” GAO said in its annual assessment of the Pentagon’s acquisition programs, published Wednesday. “These officials said that the program will still be able to establish sufficient confidence in the missile to declare it operational and to meet all the [middle tier of acquisition pathway’s] objectives with the reduced number of tests.”

Led by RTX subsidiary Raytheon, HACM is an air-breathing scramjet missile and one of the Air Force’s two main efforts to develop hypersonic weapons, which can fly at speeds of at least Mach 5 and are highly maneuverable mid-flight. Northrop Grumman is also on the program as a subcontractor that’s developing the scramjet engine.

Raytheon received a $985 million deal from the Air Force in 2022 to develop HACM under a middle tier of acquisition (MTA) contract, an alternative procurement pathway that requires systems to complete a rapid prototyping effort within five years. The company was later given a $407 million award in 2023 for additional work to enhance the HACM’s capabilities — bringing the contract’s total value to nearly $1.4 billion.

According to its budget request for fiscal 2025, the Air Force planned to mature HACM’s design and initiate flight test activities — including integration on the F-15E Strike Eagle and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, as well as all-up-round free flight testing of missile prototypes. The service intended to build 13 missiles during the rapid prototyping effort to use as “test assets, spares, and rounds for initial operational capability,” the GAO report noted.

Program officials told GAO that HACM’s first design review was delayed to allow for more time to finalize the missile’s hardware design and “validate an initial configuration of the system for use in the first flight test,” the report stated. Another review to certify the system’s “fully operational configuration for use in the final flight tests” was scheduled for sometime in 2025. 

An Air Force spokesperson declined to comment on the current status of HACM’s development, citing “enhanced program security measures.” Raytheon did not respond to DefenseScoop’s request for comment.

Furthermore, GAO said that Raytheon is now “projecting that it will significantly exceed its cost baseline” for HACM, although Air Force officials told the watchdog that removing two flight tests could offer some savings. The program’s development cost as of January 2025 was estimated at close to $2 billion — a two percent increase from the watchdog’s 2024 assessment of $1.9 billion, according to the new report.

HACM would not be the Air Force’s first hypersonic missile to face challenges during development. Its other program — the Lockheed Martin-developed AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) — had a rocky test campaign. At least one of the weapon’s flight tests was deemed unsuccessful, prompting the service to shift priority to HACM’s development.

Issues during ARRW’s testing led the service to axe the weapon’s procurement in FY’25 so the Air Force could reassess the program for future budget requests, casting doubt on ARRW’s future. However, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin recently revealed that the service has included funds to buy ARRW missiles in its upcoming fiscal 2026 budget request.

“I will tell you that we are developing — and you’ll see in the budget submission, assuming it’s what we put forward — two different programs. One is a larger form factor that is more strategic [and] long range that we have already tested several times — it’s called ARRW. The other is HACM,” Allvin said last week during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

Although both ARRW and HACM are hypersonic weapons, they each have different propulsion systems that give them different characteristics. ARRW is a large boost-glide missile that uses a rocket motor to achieve hypersonic flight and is thus limited to being carried by bigger platforms, such as the B-52 Stratofortress bomber. On the other hand, HACM is a smaller cruise missile powered by an air-breathing jet engines, or scramjet, meaning it can be launched from more tactical aircraft like fighter jets.

Despite their differences, Air Force officials have previously stated that both ARRW and HACM are “complementary” to one another.

Moving forward, the Air Force is working with Raytheon to create a new schedule for HACM that still follows the five-year rapid prototyping timeframe mandated for MTA programs, GAO noted in the report. The government watchdog also said the Air Force has altered HACM’s transition strategy to support faster delivery of more missiles, while also improving the weapon’s design for large-scale manufacturing and expanding the industrial base’s capacity for production.

The service currently plans to use the rapid fielding effort in FY’27 to deliver missiles developed during HACM’s initial prototyping phase and then iterate on the weapon’s design. That work will inform a concurrent major capability acquisition pathway program the Air Force will start production for in fiscal 2029, according to GAO.

“The program office stated that based on global power competition and urgency to address threats, the Air Force changed the focus of the HACM program from a prototype demonstration to a program that would deliver operational capability in fiscal year 2027,” per the report. “The program stated that, with this shift, it is focused on meeting schedule as the priority and maintaining velocity toward fielding an operationally relevant capability — the minimum viable product that meets user-defined performance requirements — in fiscal year 2027.”

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The contractor announced Monday that it completed flight testing of the Cognitive Algorithm Deployment System (CADS), which employs AI and machine learning technology to an aircraft’s RWR to enable real-time analysis of enemy radar signals. The conclusion of testing paves the way for the Air Force to begin buying the systems in 2025 for some of the service’s fourth-generation aircraft, according to the vendor.

The company designed CADS specifically for its ALR-69A radar warning receiver, Michael Baladjanian, Raytheon’s vice president of electronic warfare systems in advanced products and solutions, told reporters during a briefing ahead of the announcement. At the moment, the company expects CADS to be added to F-16 Fighting Falcons for the Air National Guard and the EC-130H Compass Call, but the contractor is able to integrate the system with any aircraft using the ALR-69A, Baladjanian noted.

“Our ALR-69A, which we’re employing this on, is really the first digital radar warning receiver. It gives the air crew one of the most highly reliably precision data-making systems compared to the old analog legacy systems,” he said. “One of the things when we started this that we looked into was, how would we employ our CADS hardware? And the RWR was a really nice fit for that.”

The CADS incorporates an embedded graphics processing unit and a computing stack developed by Deepwave Digital, a company specializing in developing AI for radio frequency and wireless systems. Baladjanian noted the platform is also able to host third-party software, meaning algorithms developed in the future could be integrated for upgrades down the line. 

The technology uses algorithms to help air crews sense, identify and prioritize enemy radar signals on the RWR’s mission data file in real time, according to Baladjanian.

“The RWR is all dependent on the mission data file, and this actually enhances that characteristic for the radar warning receiver. The CADS works together or in parallel with what’s there today to help [warfighters] identify and even prioritize threats,” he said. “A lot of times you might get flooded with 100 different looks, and it’s going to help the air crew say, “This signal is more important than that one.’”

The AI and machine learning capabilities in CADS can also conduct more accurate data analysis on unknown signals, giving warfighters more confidence in what specific enemy capabilities they are facing, Baladjanian told reporters.

“This will be able to break through a lot of barriers with certain threats, especially when you’re in flight tests. Lab tests are a good step, but there’s nothing like when you go onto an open range and now you’re seeing all kinds of different types of signals,” he said. “This will help break through those ambiguities that can happen.”

Raytheon has so far conducted six lab tests and five flight tests for CADS, and flight tests are expected to continue throughout 2025 as the contractor waits for a procurement decision. While Baladjanian could not share how many systems the Air Force is planning to buy, he said Raytheon has the ability to meet the service’s demand.

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Officials announced this week that the Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band pod, which will be mounted on EA-18G Growler aircraft, had reached the critical milestone — meaning the design, testing and production of the pod meets the logistical needs of the carrier air wings and Growler squadrons.

Overall, the NGJ — a cooperative program with the Royal Australian Air Force — is the replacement for the decades-old ALQ-99. The program was initially broken up into three separate jamming pods covering various ends of the electromagnetic spectrum based upon the criticality of current and emerging threats: Mid-Band, Low-Band (which L3Harris won in August 2024 after years of protest) and High-Band (for which there hasn’t been any line item in Navy budgets since at least fiscal 2020).

The pods are expected to be significantly more powerful than the ALQ-99, with extended range and the ability to jam multiple targets simultaneously. With the increase in sophistication and range of adversaries’ military systems — especially across the Pacific — such a capability could be critically important for the U.S. military in future conflicts.

“Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band improves our fleet’s warfighting advantage in the electromagnetic spectrum,” Rear Adm. John Lemmon, program executive officer for tactical aircraft programs, said in a statement. “This system provides enhanced capabilities to deny, distract and disorient adversaries’ radars, protecting our naval aviators and allowing them to carry out their missions in contested airspace.”

Lt. Cmdr. Michael Bedwell, EA-18G naval flight officer and NGJ-MB deputy integrated product team lead, noted that the Mid-Band pod will boost the fleet’s ability to maintain spectrum dominance, adding that the “era of isolated surface-to-air missile systems, which operate within a non-agile and limited frequency range, is behind us.”

Raytheon, an RTX business, won the initial Mid-Band contract in 2016 with follow-on awards for low-rate initial production in March 2023. The first production pods were delivered to the fleet in July 2023, according to the Navy.

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The program is for the Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band pod, which will be mounted on EA-18G Growlers. Raytheon won the initial contract for the Mid-Band pod in 2016.

Overall, the Next Generation Jammer — a cooperative program with the Royal Australian Air Force — is the replacement for the decades-old ALQ-99. The program was initially broken up into three separate jamming pods covering various ends of the electromagnetic spectrum based upon the criticality of current and emerging threats: Mid-Band, Low-Band (which L3Harris won in August after years of protest) and High-Band (for which there hasn’t been any line item in Navy budgets since at least fiscal 2020).

The pods are expected to be significantly more powerful than the ALQ-99, with extended range and the ability to jam multiple targets simultaneously. With the increase in sophistication and range of adversaries’ military systems — especially across the Pacific — such a jamming capability could be critically important for the U.S. military in future conflicts.

The award is part of the low-rate initial production and is one in a series that is also projected to be awarded in the future, according to an RTX spokesperson.

Raytheon was awarded the low-rate initial production in March 2023. The first production pods were delivered to the fleet in July 2023, according to the Navy.

“NGJ-MB is a revolutionary offensive electronic attack system for the joint force that puts a critical combat capability in the hands of our Naval warfighters,” Barbara Borgonovi, president of naval power at Raytheon, said in a statement. “We’re working with the U.S. Navy to ensure NGJ-MB provides the advanced electronic warfare solution needed as quickly as possible.”

The work under the contract will take place through 2028, Raytheon said.

The company also recently won a $192 million contract to develop an extended-range capability for the Mid-Band pod, known as NGJ-MBX. Last year, the Navy initiated a change to the Mid-Band program to develop an extended pod, NGJ-MBX, to provide increased range and address specific gaps in the upper frequency. This capability provides a frequency extension of the Mid-Band as the quickest way to address near-term threats in light of the High-Band capability that remains unfunded.

The RTX spokesperson said the contract award announced Thursday covers the baseline configuration, and the MBX capability will come in a future lot.

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The program is for the Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band Extended (NGJ-MBX), which will be mounted on EA-18G Growlers. Raytheon won the initial contract for the Mid-Band pod in 2016.

Overall, the Next Generation Jammer — a cooperative program with the Royal Australian Air Force — is the replacement for the decades-old ALQ-99. The program was initially broken up into three separate jamming pods covering various ends of the electromagnetic spectrum based upon the criticality of current and emerging threats: Mid-Band, Low-Band (which L3Harris won in August after years of protest) and High-Band (for which there hasn’t been any line item in Navy budgets since at least fiscal 2020).

The pods are expected to be significantly more powerful than the ALQ-99, with extended range and the ability to jam multiple targets simultaneously. With the increase in sophistication and range of adversaries’ military systems — especially across the Pacific — such a jamming capability could be critically important for the U.S. military in future conflicts.

In 2023, the Navy initiated a change to the Mid-Band program to develop an extended pod, NGJ-MBX, to provide increased range and address specific gaps in the upper frequency. This capability provides a frequency extension of the Mid-Band as the quickest way to address near-term threats in light of the High-Band capability that remains unfunded.

According to a Raytheon spokesperson, the company was issued a study and risk reduction contract in December 2022, and now the engineering and manufacturing development award on Sept. 27, 2024.

A Raytheon release this week noted the new $192 million contract will serve to upgrade the current Mid-Band system providing a modification to extend the frequency range, counter additional threats and provide additional capabilities to improve operational effectiveness. The spokesperson noted the upgraded MBX arrays will be produced and integrated on new production pods and retrofitted to fielded Mid-Band systems.

“Offensive Electronic Attack provides a tremendous combat capability supporting strike packages and kinetic weapons across a broad range of missions,” said Barbara Borgonovi, president of Naval Power at Raytheon. “With this upgrade, we’ll ensure our naval aviators in all theaters are better prepared to counter new adversary threats and provide greater combat power throughout their missions.”

In fiscal 2025 budget documents, the Navy requested $86.7 million in research and development funds for the MBX effort. Work in fiscal year 2025 is projected to include detailed design development of the Advanced Frequency Converter Module and MBX arrays and a system critical design review. The plan for fiscal year 2025 is also to procure prototype material with aircraft/software integration efforts beginning along with preparation for testing efforts.

The documents note the Navy wants to deliver the MBX capability to the fleet as quickly as possible.

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The $197 million cost-plus-fixed-fee deal was announced Thursday evening by the Defense Department as part of its daily list of major contract awards. Bids were solicited via the internet and one was received, according to the Pentagon. The estimated completion date for the work is Sept. 30, 2027.

Army leaders are keen on Coyote weapons as a mean of protecting soldiers from adversaries’ unmanned aerial systems, which have become a growing threat on modern battlefields as American troops and others have come under attack from kamikaze drones and other platforms, including in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility in the Middle East.

Earlier this year, the service awarded a $75 million contract to RTX Corp., the parent company of Raytheon, to produce 600 Coyote Block 2C interceptors.

Thursday’s announcement about the new, nearly $200 million deal didn’t say how many interceptors were included or which variants. DefenseScoop has reached out to the Army seeking that information. RTX officials referred DefenseScoop to the Army for those details.

“We continue to see growing demand for our Raytheon Coyote family of effectors, which offer a low-cost and highly effective solution for defeating unmanned aircraft systems. Coyote can defeat multiple targets, singles and swarms, demonstrating reduced engagement timelines to defeat various threats,” Bill Darne, director for counter-UAS and short-range ground-based air defense requirements, capabilities and solutions at Raytheon, said in a statement.

Army officials have described the Coyote as a key component of its counter-drone “system of systems.”

The ground-launched, radar-guided interceptor — which comes in kinetic and non-kinetic variants — “integrates into fixed site-low, slow, small-unmanned aircraft system integrated defeat systems and mobile-slow, small-unmanned aircraft system integrated defeat systems,” the Army said in a release in January.

The term “kinetic,” in U.S. military parlance, generally refers to missiles or other traditional types of weapons that directly strike their targets. Non-kinetic capabilities like electronic warfare, high-power microwaves and high-energy lasers, offer alternative ways of thwarting enemy platforms.

Looking ahead, the estimated production requirement for Coyote-related capabilities in the fiscal 2025-2029 time frame is a minimum quantity of 6,000 kinetic interceptors, 700 non-kinetic interceptors, 252 fixed-site launcher systems, 25 mobile launcher systems, 118 fixed-site Ku-band Radio Frequency Sensors (KuRFS) and 33 mobile KuRFS, according to a notice posted on Sam.gov in December 2023.

The Army’s fiscal 2025 budget request, released in March, sought $116.3 million to procure Coyote interceptors.

“We’ve been developing counter-UAS systems for a number of years and fielding a lot — primarily to Centcom. The Coyote missile, for example, was started as a counter-UAS missile. That’s one of the most effective ones we have right now. So you will see additional funding for those things,” Doug Bush, the Army’s acquisition chief, told DefenseScoop during a budget preview with reporters.

In May, the service released to industry a request for information related to a future increment of its maneuver short-range air defense (M-SHORAD) capability. Among the characteristics sought are the ability to support mounted and dismounted operations with multiple effectors — including interceptors like the Coyote — and sensors integrated on a single platform or “manned/unmanned pairs.”

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Space Systems Command (SSC) dropped Raytheon from the Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking — MEO (MEO MW/MT) program in May due to significant cost growth, slips in launch schedule and unresolved design challenges experienced by the company. Raytheon was originally contracted in 2021 to build three space vehicles for the missile-warning constellation’s first batch of satellites, known as Epoch 1.

As SSC prepares to launch the remaining Epoch 1 systems and receives proposals for the subsequent Epoch 2 space vehicles, officials are exploring how to make up for the capability lost by dropping Raytheon from the contract, Col. Rob Davis, PEO for the command’s space sensing directorate, said Wednesday during a media roundtable at AFA’s Air, Space and Cyber conference.

“We have plans to go ahead and make sure we don’t have a loss of capability in Epoch 1. We expect to have equivalent capabilities in the requirements being satisfied with Epoch 1,” Davis said. “Flowing into Epoch 2, that [request for proposals] is on the street. We’re tracking that, eagerly waiting to get those back and seeing where that takes us to finish out the initial warfighting capability of that constellation.”

The MEO MW/MT constellation is being developed to track high-speed missiles from medium-Earth orbit (MEO) as part of the Space Force’s plans to build a resilient architecture of missile warning and missile-tracking satellites across multiple orbits.

SSC is leveraging a spiral development model for the program by developing and fielding the systems in “epochs” that each deliver incremental capability — similar to the strategy used by the Space Development Agency for its Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). The intent is to have the MEO MW/MT constellation work with the PWSA birds in low-Earth orbit and other satellites in higher orbits to track advanced missile threats from space.

Boeing subsidiary Millennium Space Systems was also contracted in 2021 to build six satellites for the constellation. Later in 2023, L3Harris received an award to complete sensor payload design for Epoch 1. SSC expects to launch the six Epoch 1 vehicles — which will provide initial missile-warning capability — by 2027.

Bob Fitzpatrick, vice president of requirements and capabilities at Raytheon, told DefenseScoop that moving forward, the company is able to carry the development work it did on Epoch 1 into its proposal for future phases of the MEO MW/MT program.

“We actually worked hand in hand with [SSC] to really develop a good point to kind of bring it to closure, because we saw how much it was going to do for our business but equally for what they wanted to do,” Fitzpatrick said Tuesday on the sidelines of the AFA conference. “It actually turned out to be very positive for both of us, and we are now looking at leveraging that technology for the Epoch 2 series.”

In August, SSC released a request for prototype proposals for development and procurement of up to 18 space vehicles for Epoch 2. The satellites will build upon the Epoch 1 birds and be able to track advanced hypersonic and ballistic missile threats, according to the solicitation.

Davis noted that the Epoch 2 platforms will carry “in-plane, vendor-specific crosslinks,” meaning the space vehicles will only be able to share data and communicate with those made by the same company located in MEO. Once the contracts are awarded, it’s possible SSC will look into an additional crosslink to advance the technology.

“From a tech maturation [standpoint], we’re really looking to Epoch 3 to have that technology ready to support where we really want to get to — that point where we’re meshing between vendors,” Davis said.

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The contractor is partnering with the service and the two vendors competing in the ongoing development-for-production phase of CCA Increment 1 to incorporate the weapons onto the drones, Jon Norman, Raytheon’s vice president of air and space defense systems requirements and capability, said during a meeting with reporters Tuesday. News about plans to equip the uncrewed systems with the missile was first reported by Air and Space Forces Magazine in July.

“We’ve been working with the Air Force with their collaborative combat aircraft, and they’re integrating that onto the [Increment 1]. They’re still in the early requirements phase for CCA [Increment 2],” Norman said. 

Part of the Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems, CCA drones are intended to fly alongside the service’s fifth- and sixth-generation manned aircraft in the future. The department intends to rapidly produce the uncrewed platforms to begin testing them in operations before the end of the decade.

The Air Force is planning to design and field the systems in increments in order to gradually iterate and improve their capabilities. Service leaders have said the unmanned aircraft will carry a range of equipment in order to accomplish multiple missions — from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) to offensive strike.

Norman said the Air Force has set the AIM-120 as “a threshold weapon” for the drones.

“Now you can have a controlling aircraft — whether that’s an [F-35 Lightning II] or an [F-22 Raptor] — that can use those collaborative combat aircraft as a force extender, so they have more munitions available,” he said. “With the collaborative combat aircraft, now it has a platform out there that’s in the right position, survivable, and it can employ AMRAAMs guided and directed by the F-35 or by the F-22.”

In April, Anduril and General Atomics were awarded contracts to create detailed designs, manufacture and conduct flight tests for the first batch of CCAs, known as Increment 1. Once the service nails down its preferred design, the two companies — as well as any other vendors interested — will be able to compete for the final production contract expected to be made in 2026.

The service will display full-scale models of both company’s prototypes during AFA’s Air, Space and Cyber conference in September, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said Tuesday during the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Aerospace Summit.

Raytheon has spent significant time redesigning the missile to add improvements in range, navigation and anti-jamming technology. Although the company did not share which specific variant of the AMRAAM is being integrated onto the CCAs, the range of the newest variant — the AIM-120D — is estimated to be around 100 miles.

Norman said the contractor is currently preparing for a round of tests under the Air Force’s Weapon System Evaluation program to further demonstrate the AMRAAMs range for extended shots. The company didn’t alter anything with the missile’s propulsion system, but changed how it flies for long-range shots so that it has more kinetic energy when it hits targets, he explained.

“What that does is it brings us back into parity, and we actually exceed a lot of the capability of all the pacing threats worldwide. So, it makes AMRAAM kind of future-proof,” Norman said.

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Space Systems Command notified Raytheon of the discontinuation in May and held a design closure event earlier this month, an SSC spokesperson said in an email. The service decided to drop the company from the program “because the RTX Epoch 1 development effort was facing significant cost growth from the original agreement baseline, projecting slips to the launch schedule, and had unresolved design challenges,” they added.

Raytheon received an other transaction agreement in 2021 to design digital models of three space vehicles for Epoch 1 of the MEO MW/MT program. The planned constellation is intended to track high-speed missiles from medium-Earth orbit (MEO), and is part of the Space Force’s plan to build a resilient architecture of missile-warning satellites in multiple orbits. 

Similar to the Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), the MEO MW/MT satellites are being developed in phases — referred to as “epochs” — that are designed to deliver the latest capabilities in increments. Raytheon is also contracted with SDA to build satellites for Tranche 1 of the PWSA’s missile tracking layer, which will be launched into low-Earth orbit.

“RTX remains committed to supporting the U.S. Space Force now and in the future,” a company spokesperson said in a statement when asked to comment on RTX’s discontinuation from the Epoch 1 effort.

Boeing-subsidiary Millennium Space Systems received a contract at the same time as Raytheon in 2021, to design six satellites for the constellation. In June 2023, L3Harris became the third vendor for Epoch 1 when the Space Force awarded it a one-year contract for sensor payload design.

The service announced in November that the six satellites from Millennium passed space system critical design review, and the SSC spokesperson noted the company also achieved CDR for its ground segments in March. In addition, L3Harris completed critical design review for its infrared sensor payload designed for Epoch 1 in May, according to the company.

The SSC spokesperson noted that the decision to remove Raytheon from the program has not impacted the other vendors nor the program’s schedule to launch the satellites sometime in 2026 or 2027.

To replace the three scrapped space vehicles, the Space Force now plans to either build additional space vehicles from another vendor contracted for Epoch 1 or through its upcoming competition for Epoch 2, the next iteration of the MEO MW/MT constellation.

A request for proposal for Epoch 2 of MEO MW/MT is expected to be released in July, according to the spokesperson.

“We are still on path to deliver to our Epoch 1 goals to provide an initial missile tracking capability, prototype several key technologies, and refine operational concepts in MEO,” they said. “The MEO program has done an outstanding job of creating a sustained competitive environment, allowing us to execute this action without compromising our ability to meet the requirement to provide a resilient missile warning and tracking capability for the nation.”

News of the service dropping a vendor emerged in the detailed funding tables of House appropriators’ fiscal 2025 defense spending bill, first published by Politico on Monday. Lawmakers proposed a $75 million decrease in funds allocated due to “MEO vendor termination,” as well as an additional $10 million drop for “Epoch 2 ops and integration early to need” and another $10 million cut for “management services excess to need,” the documents show.

In total, House appropriators allocated $750 million in research and development dollars for the MEO MW/MT program. The Space Force had originally asked for $846 million in its budget request for fiscal 2025.

Along with the MEO MW/MT program cuts, House appropriators’ proposal would pare down the Space Force’s fiscal 2025 budget to $28.7 billion — around $900 million less than what the service requested in March, and about 5 percent less than what the Space Force was allocated in fiscal 2024.

The House defense appropriations bill must be reconciled with the Senate version during conference before becoming law, so it remains to be seen how much funding will ultimately be approved by Congress.

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