Space Defence

Space defense technology encompasses the satellites, ground systems, sensors, and software that military and intelligence organizations use to protect national security interests in and through space, from missile warning and communications to space domain awareness and the emerging capability to defend orbital assets against adversary threats. The global space defense market reached approximately $62 billion in 2025 and is projected to exceed $116 billion by 2034, with North America commanding 40% market share ($24.9 billion) driven by the U.S. Space Force's expanding mission and budget.

The U.S. Space Force requested a $26.3 billion base budget for FY 2026, with an additional $13.8 billion from reconciliation legislation bringing the potential total to approximately $40 billion, nearly a 40% increase from FY 2025. The centerpiece program is the Space Development Agency's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), which aims to deploy over 1,000 satellites in low Earth orbit by 2026. The SDA awarded approximately $3.5 billion in Tranche 3 contracts in December 2025 to L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Rocket Lab for 72 missile tracking and warning satellites. Rocket Lab's $805 million award for 18 satellites was nearly 50% larger than the company's entire 2024 revenue, demonstrating how commercial space companies are winning contracts previously reserved for traditional defense primes.

The Golden Dome initiative represents the administration's priority for space-based missile defense, with $13.8 billion allocated from reconciliation funding for missile defense satellite systems including boost-phase interceptor prototypes. The Space Force declared the ATLAS space domain awareness system operational in 2025, providing software-centric capabilities for detecting, tracking, and characterizing orbital objects including adversary satellites. On-orbit servicing is advancing rapidly, with four satellite refueling demonstration missions planned for 2026, all in geostationary orbit where the most strategically valuable military communications and missile warning satellites operate.

Internationally, Japan released its first Space Domain Defense Guidelines in July 2025, requesting $1.4 billion for space defense capabilities including satellite protection and anti-satellite countermeasures. The AUKUS alliance (Australia, UK, US) is expanding space defense cooperation with Japan under enhanced partnership frameworks. Allied nations are recognizing that space superiority is now a prerequisite for conventional military effectiveness.

For founders, space defense technology in 2026 offers the fastest-growing addressable market in the broader space economy. The most fundable approaches serve the SDA's proliferated architecture (small satellite manufacturing at scale, mesh networking for satellite constellations, resilient communications), provide space domain awareness capabilities (tracking and characterizing objects in orbit, detecting threats), or build the software infrastructure that enables military operators to command and control hundreds of satellites simultaneously rather than the handful they managed historically.