SDA Director Drops ‘Acting’ Label and Adds All Missile Warning to Portfolio

After eight months leading the Space Development Agency on an acting basis, Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo was named SDA’s permanent leader and given a second hat as the Space Force’s portfolio acquisition executive for missile warning and tracking programs, the service announced May 19.

Both appointments were expected, as Space Force leaders teased the moves during the annual Space Symposium last month.

The announcement comes as the Space Force and the rest of the services reorganize around a new acquisition approach championed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that calls for fewer stovepipes and more rapid development and delivery—and at a moment of uncertainty for SDA as Space Force leaders consider how the standalone, disruptive acquisition hub fits within a structure where all offices are meant to be agile and fast-moving.

As head of SDA, Sandhoo will continue to guide the transition of the agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture from the demonstration phase to an operational constellation of hundreds of satellites in low-Earth orbit.

As PAE for all of the Space Force’s missile warning and tracking programs, Sandhoo now oversees a multi-orbit architecture of sensor satellites. That includes SDA’s satellites, plus the Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking constellation in medium-Earth orbit and the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared program, which was designed to field satellites in both geosynchronous and polar orbits. 

That portfolio is also in transition as the service shifts from a strategy that favored small numbers of large, expensive spacecraft toward a more proliferated architecture. The Space Force’s fiscal 2027 budget request proposes canceling the polar leg of the Next-Gen OPIR program. At the same time, the service’s missile warning and tracking satellites are central to the Trump administration’s Golden Dome project, which aims to create an advanced, layered missile defense shield. 

In many ways, SDA, which began in 2019 as an independent agency, has been the poster child of the rapid proliferation approach. But the entire Space Force is now embracing it.

Speaking May 19 at a National Security Institute event on Capitol Hill, one of the Space Force’s top officers, Lt. Gen. David N. Miller Jr., said proliferation is paying off, particularly in the missile warning and tracking mission area. He highlighted SDA’s current on-orbit demonstration constellation of eight missile tracking satellites, dubbed Tranche 0, saying they have outperformed expectations.

“What we are already seeing in the Tranche 0, which is basically the proliferated LEO, low-Earth orbit, missile warning and tracking architecture, is the performance in tracking is better than we thought,” said Miller, who is deputy chief of space operations for strategy, plans, programs, and requirements. “It has demonstrated the level of performance and tracking of the advanced threats that we are seeing today.”

Without getting into specific price points, Miller said SDA has proven it can reduce the cost of these satellites by prioritizing speed and regular technology upgrades, fielding satellites in batches on a two or three-year cycle. Miller said the service’s current five-year budget projection—which is called the future years defense program—includes “thousands” of satellites.

While that level of granularity on satellite quantities isn’t visible in the Space Force’s public budget request, the service’s fiscal ‘27 procurement budget includes several major plus-ups, including $1.5 billion for its Space Data Network program and $7 billion for space-based air moving target indication satellites. 

“I think the capacity is there. We’ve already seen the refresh rate and the ability to leverage technology,” Miller said. “I think Congress has seen the value as well to support us and appropriate dollars. … I’m very confident we can do it.”

Speaking more broadly about the Space Force’s $71 billion budget request for 2027, Miller said called it the “most balanced” plan he’s seen for delivering “combat-credible” and resilient space capabilities. Along with the major boosts for AMTI and SDN procurement, the request includes $5 billion for LEO and MEO missile warning programs, $4 billion for National Security Space Launch, and $1 billion to build four new geographically distributed operations centers as well as several tactical electronic warfare hubs.

“The entire joint force is dependent on spacepower,” Miller said. “And there’s no going back because to build and make the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps that isn’t will be even more expensive to build. So you have to build the capability to defend it, to engage where needed, but most importantly to defer conflict. And I think that this [future years defense program] actually does.”