US space forces have announced the cancellation, With which Boeing and Northrop Grumman competed for a contract. Instead of a traditional approach, the defense department is choosing a more flexible strategy, which will allow to quickly adapt to modern challenges.
Reasons for changes
Program PTS-R (Protected Tactical Satellite Communication-Resilient) was started in 2020 year in response to threats from China and Russia, which are actively developing means of radio-electronic warfare. It was planned to create constellations resistant to satellite obstacles, capable of providing safe connection in combat zones.
Although Boeing and Northrop Grumman will complete their demonstration missions with PTS-P prototypes, Further competition for serial satellite production has been canceled. Instead, the US aircraft will focus on the gradual introduction of smaller ones and easier to use satellites.
Financial aspects
Despite the change of strategy, investment in the PTS program continues: In the budget project on 2026 financial year is provided $572 million for development “families of systems” PTS, which includes satellites, ground infrastructure and secure modems. These systems are based on the encrypted PTW protocol (Protected Tactical Waveform), which provides resistance to obstacles and intercepting.
The new strategy is pts-g
Instead, PTS-G program is launched (Protected Tactical Satcom-Global), which is betting on commercial small satellites for geostationary orbit. It provides for the phased deployment of low-complexity satellites in Ka- and X-bands, starting from individual regions and gradually moving to the global cover.
This means a departure from traditional large satellite platforms in favor of fast and flexible solutions, which allow you to constantly update the infrastructure without multi-year delays.
Source: https://spacenews.com/space-force-scraps-satellite-procurement-shifts-to-more-flexible-strategy/