Method wins $30M Space Force grant to defend satellites from cyber attacks
What's the deal? Method SecurityDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has been awarded a $30 million STRATFI (Strategic Funding Increase) grant from the US Space ForceDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to scale its autonomous cyber mission system across the space domain. The award — the maximum available under the program — comes through a partnership with the Defensive Cyber Operations for Space program and the 6th Sustainment Squadron under Mission Delta 6.
What's the endgame? Method plans to deploy its system across the Space Force, testing the cyber resilience of critical space assets and deterring adversaries who target them. The startup has spent the past two years building the technology, which also powers security work for private-sector and US government customers.
Why now? Method frames the award around escalating competition with China, which it says is fielding counterspace capabilities to "blind, jam, disrupt, and destroy" systems the US depends on. The company points to 500-plus ISR-capable satellites and a targeted 140 Chinese launches in 2026.
What could go wrong? Space assets face a growing cyber threat. Method cites the 2022 attack that knocked out a satellite network across Europe hours before Russia's invasion of Ukraine — attackers exploited a VPN misconfiguration and overwrote modem firmware, taking tens of thousands of terminals offline.
The signal: At $30 million, the grant ranks in the 96th percentile among all-time US security grants — a sign of how much defense funding is flowing toward securing space infrastructure, a domain the Space Force now treats as central to deterrence.
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Image credit: Method Security
