Space Force Awards $287 Million Software Contract for Strategic SATCOM Ground Segment
The U.S. Space Force's Space Systems Command awarded a $287 million contract to Sphinx Defense on July 27 to develop a mission planning prototype for the Evolved Strategic Satellite Communications (ESS) program's ground segment, known as GRIFFON. The software will manage the future fleet of nuclear command and control satellites, apportion bandwidth, and ensure secure communications for national leaders. The ESS program will eventually replace the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite constellation. The Space Force is using competitive prototyping and the Pentagon's software acquisition pathway to cut ground segment delivery from 12 years to six. The first two Boeing-built ESS satellites are expected by 2031. The fiscal 2027 budget request includes $1.8 billion for ESS, with $571 million for GRIFFON, and an estimated $4.8 billion needed through fiscal 2031.
Editorial responsibility
- No named human review is recorded for this page.
- Reports are grouped by semantic similarity and deterministic rules. Language models may assist titles, summaries, translation and cross-source analysis; the page itself is projected from evidence records.
- Current automated evidence projection