War Contracts

Peraton Receives $109.1 Million Air Force Space Weather Contract

Peraton Inc. received a $109.1 million sole-source award to sustain and upgrade the Space Weather Analysis and Forecast System, with work in Colorado Springs running through February 2033.

First Published: July 31, 2026, 1:21 PM ET

HERNDON, VIRGINIA — Peraton Inc., the Reston, Virginia, national security contractor with about $7 billion in annual revenue, received a $109.1 million Air Force contract to sustain and modernize a system that forecasts space weather, as announced on war.gov.

The hybrid fixed-price, level-of-effort, and cost-plus-fixed-fee award covers the Space Weather Analysis and Forecast System. It funds sustainment, maintenance, legacy capability migration, and continued development of operations and cybersecurity enhancements. Space Systems Command’s Directorate of Contracting in Colorado Springs, Colorado, serves as the contracting activity. The Air Force obligated fiscal 2026 operations and maintenance funds of $3.8 million and research, development, test and evaluation funds of $1.1 million at the time of award.

Peraton describes itself as a company focused on “fearlessly solving the toughest national security challenges,” spanning space, intelligence, cyber, and defense work, according to peraton.com. The firm supports interplanetary spacecraft landings and defends against cyberattacks, according to peraton.com. The award marks Peraton’s third Department of Defense contract in 2026, lifting the company’s total contract value for the year to $143.5 million. Only two Defense Department contracts went out nationwide on July 31, 2026.

Space weather forecasting matters far beyond the military. Solar storms and geomagnetic disturbances can disrupt satellites, GPS navigation, power grids, and aviation communications. For the average reader, systems that track those threats help protect the timing signals behind bank transactions and the satellite links behind phone service and weather forecasts.

The stakes favor Peraton, which locks in years of predictable federal revenue through a sole-source arrangement that competitors could not bid. Taxpayers carry the cost, though the government gains continuity on a system already tied to Peraton’s engineers. Rivals lose the chance to unseat an incumbent on a mission-critical program.

Sole-source military work has happened before for Peraton. The company captured a $2.69 billion Homeland Security cloud contract in 2022 and a $1 billion Pentagon deal to counter misinformation in 2021, according to wikipedia.org. Its scale grew through acquisitions, including Northrop Grumman’s federal IT business for $3.4 billion, according to preqin.com.

The next decision point belongs to Space Systems Command, which oversees performance and funding through the contract’s completion. Work is expected to be completed by February 18, 2033. No date has been announced for any follow-on competition or recompete.

Military interest in space weather stretches back decades, as forecasters learned the sky can blind armies. In 1859, the Carrington Event, the largest recorded geomagnetic storm, set telegraph lines afire and lit auroras as far south as the Caribbean, according to britannica.com. A solar storm collapsed Quebec’s power grid within 90 seconds in March 1989, leaving 6 million people in the dark for nine hours, according to britannica.com. Those disruptions pushed governments to fund forecasting programs that today’s contractors, Peraton among them, are paid to keep running.

This contract represents the 3rd contract awarded to Peraton Inc., in 2026, bringing the company’s total contract value for the year to $143,519,157. It is also the 150th Department of Defense contract awarded in Virginia during 2026. While this is not the largest contract ever awarded to Peraton Inc., whose record stands at $206,523,543, it is notable within the Air Force portfolio. Specifically, it falls between the 2026 Air Force portfolio’s year-to-date minimum of $17 and maximum of $5,600,000,000. Overall, this award was announced among 2 Department of Defense contracts issued nationwide on July 31, 2026.