TrustPoint has been awarded a $4 million Tactical Funding Increase (TACFI) contract to demonstrate a GPS-independent positioning, navigation, and timing system.
The award was issued by SpaceWERX, the innovation arm of the United States Space Force, and jointly funded by the Small Business Innovation Research program and the Commercial Space Office.
TACFI awards are typically valued at around $2 million and usually require a private capital match. In this case, SpaceWERX provided the full $4 million, with no matching investment required from TrustPoint. CEO and founder Patrick Shannon described the award as a demand signal from the government for C-band GNSS from LEO.
Under the contract, TrustPoint will design, deploy, and operate a fully integrated PNT system comprising four satellites and four ground stations, delivering a complete operational architecture including live trilateration across multiple space and ground assets. TrustPoint currently has three single satellites in orbit as early technology demonstrators; the four-satellite constellation funded by the TACFI will demonstrate the full operational capability.
The technical approach centers on C-band rather than the L-band frequencies used by GPS. The combination of low-orbit satellites and higher-frequency transmissions is intended to improve resistance to interference. The system also incorporates a software-defined navigation architecture designed to adapt in contested or degraded environments, supporting both military and commercial users seeking resilient alternatives to GPS.
Shannon emphasized that the demonstration is also intended to prove the capability can be deployed at a fraction of the cost of traditional systems, using microsat-class buses in the 10-kilogram range. “You can build a microsat-class bus in the 10 kilogram range and get the mission done and that lays the groundwork to build a lot of these in an affordable way,” he said, noting benefits for replenishment strategy and launch cadence.
Initial system deployments are expected within 12 months, establishing a rapid deployment model designed to scale to larger constellations.
The TACFI follows a series of earlier SpaceWERX awards to TrustPoint. Inside GNSS previously covered the company’s January 2026 ground-to-space time-transfer demonstration under the SpaceWERX AltPNT Challenge, as well as the $1.9 million Phase II SBIR award announced in February. The TACFI represents the largest single government contract TrustPoint has received to date and the first to fund a multi-satellite operational demonstration.
