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Officials hedge SpaceX aircraft-tracking satellite bet with three smaller company contracts
['Thomas Novelly', 'Senior Reporter']
Defense One - All Content
Three more companies will get Space Force money to build satellites that can track aircraft, a move meant to reduce the service’s reliance on SpaceX for the capability.
A third company was also selected, but officials didn’t name the firm in a press release this week due to “operational security.”
More than two months ago, the service awarded SpaceX a $4.16 billion contract to build the emerging technology.
Attention to space-based AMTI has grown after an expensive E-3 Sentry AWACS was heavily damaged during the first weeks of the Iran war.
The three new space-based AMTI contracts total $615 million, a mere fraction of the $4 billion given to SpaceX.