Iridium Satellite LLC

Iridium Satellite LLC, a for-profit limited liability company and satellite communications manufacturer headquartered in McLean, Virginia, delivers proliferated low Earth orbit (PLEO) satellite services, command-and-control communications, positioning and navigation capabilities, and engineering maintenance to the Department of Defense and civilian federal agencies as a prime contractor on a full-and-open basis with no set-aside designations. The vendor operates 95% of its footprint as a prime (62 of 65 awards), with minimal subcontract exposure.

Iridium's customer base centers on defense and national security agencies. The Defense Information Systems Agency dominates both award count and potential value, accounting for 17 awards worth $13.92 billion in combined ceiling value—nearly half of Iridium's total potential value across all awards. The Department of the Air Force (split between Materiel Command Research Laboratory and Space Command Space and Missile Systems Center) anchors $13 billion in potential value through two awards, while the Department of the Navy Naval Sea Systems Command contributes 6 awards worth $68.6 million. The Department of Transportation Volpe Center and the Missile Defense Agency complete the active customer set. The rankings between award count and potential value diverge sharply—DISA places many orders against Iridium's vehicle holdings, while the Air Force awards carry singular large-value ceilings—signaling both transactional volume and strategic multi-year commitments.

Iridium's vehicle position is anchored by two large-ceiling indefinite delivery contracts. The $13 billion Proliferated Low Earth Orbit Satellite-Based Services IDIQ, awarded to Iridium by DISA on August 3, 2023 (with an updated award on July 15, 2025, replacing the legacy DITCO contract), supports Department of Defense global operations with commercial low-latency PLEO capabilities through a 10-year performance window extending to July 2033. The second major vehicle is the $151 billion Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) multiple-award IDIQ, awarded by the Missile Defense Agency on December 29, 2025, extending through December 2035, which encompasses research, development, prototyping, systems engineering, weapon design, production, and test and evaluation for multi-domain defense. Iridium also holds positions on two Homeland Security Coast Guard BPAs (HSCG2807A781001 and HSCG2806A781002), which collectively carry 16 task orders and point to a secondary but material civilian homeland security customer base. Recent deliveries include a $16.36 million firm-fixed-price delivery order from the Space and Missile Systems Center for PLEO engineering and maintenance services (ultimate completion August 2026), a $22.2 million cost-plus-fixed-fee definitive contract from Naval Sea Systems Command for satellite operations support and NEXT-generation system development running through May 2028, and a $1.49 million purchase order from the Department of Transportation for complementary positioning, navigation, and timing (CPNT) services in the Rapid Phase II field trial campaign for GPS/GNSS alternatives.

Activity spiked in 2025 with seven awards—driven principally by the December SHIELD vehicle award—after sparse prior years. Three awards worth $40 million in combined potential value face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating near-term recompete exposure. The vendor's category concentration reflects its core business: 26 awards fall under Satellite Telecommunications (NAICS 517410), 19 under Investigation and Personal Background Check Services (a legacy artifact in the portfolio), and 5 under research and development services. Iridium subcontracts minimally—named sub awards include a KC-135 Aero-I satellite replacement program core component to Rockwell Collins (February 2025) and WWM implementation support to Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (July 2024). Combined dollars obligated total $1.14 billion against $27.01 billion in combined potential value, indicating these are largely ceiling-valued IDIQs and delivery orders rather than fully funded commitments at contract execution.