Iridium-GDMS Team Books $492M SDA Award for PWSA Ground System Development

The team of Iridium Communications and General Dynamics Mission Systems has secured a $491.6 million contract modification from the Space Development Agency to provide ground management and integration support for SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.

Iridium said Tuesday its share of the contract modification is valued at $239 million over a period of five years.

Under the award, the GDMS-Iridium team will work with SDA and related stakeholders to build a ground system and oversee the integration of the ground enterprise with the agency’s Tranche 2 constellation.

The companies will also provide engineering design and analysis, maintenance, testing, infrastructure management assistance and site support.

Scott Scheimreif, executive vice president of government programs at Iridium, said the company will leverage its years of experience in commercial low Earth orbit development and operations to deliver an innovative ground system to SDA and warfighters.

“Iridium is excited to be part of this groundbreaking SDA program with our partner General Dynamics Mission Systems,” Scheimreif added.

The satellite communications company said the SDA award follows an operation and integration contract awarded in 2022 to develop ground entry points and operations centers and manage systems integration services and network operations.