Northrop Grumman ($NOC) announced a partnership with Apex yesterday to collaborate on the development of space-based interceptor (SBI) satellites as part of the US Golden Dome missile-defense shield.
Having demonstrated key capabilities through ground tests this year, Northrop Grumman is on track to deliver on-orbit missile defense capabilities with Apex in 2027, according to the announcement.
Autobots, assemble: Northrop Grumman—one of 12 companies selected to build the SBI component of Golden Dome—is the latest defense prime to announce a partnership with the space industry to field its proposal. In May:
- Raytheon partnered with Rocket Lab;
- Anduril partnered with a team of space companies—including Impulse Space, Inversion Space, K2 Space, Sandia National Laboratories, and Voyager Technologies.
These partnerships aim to help defense primes deploy satellites under the aggressive high-volume and low-cost requirements set out by the DoD. While the Pentagon has been tight-lipped about the specifics of Golden Dome—and cost projections differ widely—the DoD estimates that it will cost $185B. It could consist of at least 7,000 sats at full capacity.
So, it’s no surprise that defense primes are subcontracting space industry scale-ups that have used growth-stage financing rounds to invest in high-capacity satellite production facilities.
“Apex was founded specifically to support proliferated constellations like Golden Dome,” Apex CEO Ian Cinnamon said in a statement. “This partnership will enable operational, constellation-scale space-based missile defense and allow us to rapidly support an urgent need.”
One band, one sound: Apex is also steaming ahead with an SBI demo of its own this year. In October, Apex announced a $15M, self-funded demonstration mission—called Project Shadow—to validate SBI capabilities in LEO, launching NET this month.
Under Project Shadow, Apex’s Nova satellite-bus platform will be fitted with an “orbital magazine” carrying two scaled-down demo interceptors.
The mission won’t actually intercept anything, but it’s designed to demonstrate many of the capabilities necessary for Golden Dome to perform as planned, including Link-182-capable inter-satellite links, infrared missile-warning-and-tracking payloads, and solid-rocket motor interceptors.
A spokesperson for Apex confirmed the Project Shadow demo mission is moving ahead in parallel to the work being done with Northrop Grumman.
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