LeoLabs is applying its radar tech to national security missions under a new contract with the Space Force, announced Wednesday.
The military awarded the commercial SDA company a $20.68M Prototype Other Transaction Agreement—a contracting vehicle that bypasses the typical procurement process to allow the Pentagon to quickly test out new tech.
You make me wanna: Scout was unveiled in April 2025 as the newest part of LeoLab’s product line. While the SDA company operates nearly a dozen fixed radars globally, Scout is a mobile option, roughly the size of a shipping container, which can be deployed anywhere to collect orbital intel.
LeoLabs deployed its first Scout radar in June in the Indo-Pacific. With hours of turning on, Scout began tracking Chinese ISR sats and China’s spaceplane.
Ts&Cs: Under the award, LeoLabs will provide DoD one of its Scout radar systems, modified for the national security mission.
“We’re honored to partner with the Space Force and bring our proven sensing technology into US national security,” CEO Tony Frazier said in a statement. “We’ve spent the past decade building and operating high-performance radar systems while investing in transportable, proliferated sensing to meet emerging mission needs. Together, we’re demonstrating how proven commercial technology can accelerate the delivery of new capabilities for US defense missions.”
Defense turn: LeoLabs has primarily partnered with other space companies on SDA, helping operators monitor both their own spacecraft and other sats—or debris—flying nearby, tracking 23,000+ objects in orbit as well as debris as small as 10 cm. But the company has been pushing hard to expand into the defense and government market.
The company won a contract in December from the Office of Space Commerce and the Space Force. Under the award, LeoLabs provided the government its full public catalog of SDA data to see if it could be integrated into the Commerce Department’s TraCSS space-traffic management tool.
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