WASHINGTON — The Space Force’s fiscal 2027 budget request includes large increases for several key programs that will provide foundational services for the Trump administration’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative, including the service’s missile warning and tracking development programs and its emerging Space Data Network (SDN).
The budget boosts in some cases are planned as part of the Space Force’s base budget, but in other cases the new funding would be provided by the Defense Department’s requested pot of FY27 reconciliation money, of which much is dedicated to supporting Golden Dome-related service-specific efforts.
Missile Warning And Tracking
The Space Force is asking for a whopping $6.4 billion in total FY27 research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) funds for its three big missile warning and tracking satellite programs: the Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-Gen OPIR) constellation; the Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking (MWT) – Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) constellation; and the Space Development Agency’s Tracking Layer in low Earth orbit (LEO), which in the budget documents is dubbed Resilient MWT-LEO. As first reported by Breaking Defense, all three of those programs are set to be realigned under a new Portfolio Executive Office headed by Space Development Agency (SDA) Director Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo.
The Space Force funds Next-Gen OPIR in several budget lines to cover ground systems and satellites, slating a total of $1.5 billion for FY27 vice $1.4 billion in enacted FY26 funds.
However, the FY27 budget documents show that the planned effort to put two Next-Gen OPIR birds built by Northrop Grumman on orbit by 2030 has been zeroed out. The service likewise zeroed out the polar birds in FY26, however Congress reinstated $436 million to pursue their development. The Space Force did not respond by press time to a request for comment; nor did Northrop Grumman.
The Resilient MWT-MEO program, managed by Space Systems Command, will comprise some 30 satellites, with the first nine birds now expected to launch in early in calendar year 2027. The Space Force has asked for $1.4 billion in base budget money in FY27, up from the $675 million enacted in FY26.
SDA’s Tracking Layer could also get a huge boost, with $3.56 billion slated in FY27 base funding versus $1.69 billion in FY26. The first Tranche 1 Tracking Layer satellites are expected to launch this calendar year.
GMTI And AMTI
The Space Force’s twin efforts, in partnership with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), to track moving targets on the ground and in the air from satellites also see increased funding levels in the FY27 request. The technical details of both programs are classified, as is any NRO funding contribution.
Once again, the Space Force budget lines for these programs are a bit tricky to read, and the history of GMTI budgeting is murky due to name changes and line item shifts.
In the service’s FY26 RDT&E request, budget line item PE 1230155SF was named Space-Based Ground Moving Target Indicator and included $719 million in baseline funds plus $135 million in reconciliation funds, for a total of $854 million. In the FY27 RDT&E request, that line item PE 1230155SF still exists, but is given a new name, Space-Based Moving Target Indicator. It includes $253 million in baseline Space Force funding and another $803 million from the reconciliation request, for a total of $1.06 billion.
Meanwhile, the Space Force procurement request includes $1.02 billion in funds from the service’s baseline budget in FY27 for Space-Based Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI) — a total the document said was calculated by subtracting $35 million in FY26 “advanced procurement” funds from the FY27 ask of $1.051 billion. Congress in FY26 enacted $154 million in procurement funds for GMTI, along with the $35 million for “advanced procurement.”
The procurement request also includes includes $7.06 billion in reconciliation funds for the Space-Based Air Moving Target Indicator (AMTI) effort; there were no funds for the effort in the FY26 procurement request for that budget line.
MILNET, Transport Layer And SDN: More Funds, Less Clarity
The Space Force’s FY27 budget does little to shed light on how the Department of the Air Force (DAF) and the Space Force intend to acquire a mesh network of satellites to transmit high-speed, low latency transport of large volumes of data from sensors to weapons systems — a capability that is at the heart of the Golden Dome concept.
DAF and Space Force leaders since mid-2025 have been pondering whether to terminate SDA’s plans to finalize its Transport Layer with a new set of Tranche 3 satellites, and instead rely upon a classified NRO constellation operated by SpaceX previously called MILNET. In the past few months, the debate has refocused on the possibility of integrating both into the SDN concept for building a hybrid military-commercial mesh network across all orbital regimes, with the idea being that an expanded MILNET including multiple commercial providers would serve as the data relay “backbone” constellation.
The FY27 budget does not appear to answer that question.
There are FY27 RDT&E funds requested in the two Space Force catchall budget lines that have been used to fund Transport Layer (and some small bits and bobs) over the past several years: PE 1206310SF, Space Science and Technology Research and Development and PE 1206410SF, Space Technology Development and Prototyping. The former line shows $314 million in FY 27 versus $495 million enacted in FY26; the latter shows $1.25 billion in FY27 versus $1.23 billion enacted in FY26.
Several Space Force and industry sources told Breaking Defense that while the first two sets of Transport Layer birds, Tranche 1 and 2, are fully funded to continue in FY27, Tranche 3 is not. In FY26, the Space Force terminated funding for Tranche 3 prior to SDA granting any contract awards to build the some 140 birds, but Congress reinstated $500 million to continue the effort.
An SDA spokesperson referred a query about the budgetary status of Transport Layer Tranche 3 to the Space Force, which did not respond by press time.
The service also for the first time has requested $1.48 billion in FY27 procurement funds for the sprawling SDN, all from the reconciliation pot.
Further, the procurement request for the first time includes $1.6 billion for a program called Proliferated LEO SATCOM [satellite communications] — a budget line that one Space Force official said represents the funding for the former MILNET program, which would serve as the SDN backbone in LEO. Those funds are requested from the reconciliation pot, with nothing in the Space Force’s baseline budget.
The Space Force did not respond to a query about funding for about these programs by press time.
And in a final mystery, the service’s FY27 procurement budget includes a huge jump in procurement for a budget line called “Special Space Activities,” with $2 billion slated in FY27 baseline funds, versus $712 million in baseline and reconciliation funds in FY26. Given that nowhere in the Space Force’s request is there any mention of funding for the classified contracts issued last year to begin prototyping space-based interceptors for Golden Dome, one possibility is that this is a holding account for that money.
