L3Harris Selects Mercury To Provide Solid-State Data Recorders for SDA’s Tranche 3 Tracking Layer Satellites
Rhea-AI Summary
Mercury Systems (NASDAQ: MRCY) was awarded a contract by L3Harris to supply solid-state data recorders (SSDRs) for the U.S. Space Development Agency Tranche 3 Tracking Layer satellites. L3Harris will build 18 infrared Tranche 3 satellites; Mercury will supply its highest-capacity, radiation-tolerant 3U VPX SSDR for those spacecraft.
Mercury previously delivered SSDRs for Tranche 0, Tranche 1 and all 18 Tranche 2 satellites and says it is increasing manufacturing capacity to support accelerated U.S. defense production.
Positive
- Awarded contract to supply SSDRs for L3Harris Tranche 3 (supporting 18 satellites)
- Proven supply history: SSDRs delivered for Tranche 0, Tranche 1 and all 18 Tranche 2 satellites
- Deployment of Mercury’s highest-capacity, radiation-tolerant 3U VPX SSDR for space missions
- Announced expansion of manufacturing capacity to meet accelerated defense production
Negative
- Contract value and specific delivery schedule were not disclosed, limiting near-term revenue visibility
News Market Reaction – MRCY
On the day this news was published, MRCY declined 0.71%, reflecting a mild negative market reaction.
Data tracked by StockTitan Argus on the day of publication.
Key Figures
Market Reality Check
Peers on Argus
MRCY gained 2.52% while peers were mixed: SPR +0.92%, HXL +0.25%, VSEC +1.17%, ACHR -2.16%, AIR -0.02%, indicating a stock-specific reaction to the contract news.
Historical Context
| Date | Event | Sentiment | Move | Catalyst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 12 | Capacity acquisition | Positive | -4.0% | Acquisition of SolderMask to expand manufacturing capacity and throughput. |
| Feb 03 | Earnings results | Positive | -22.3% | Q2 FY26 results with higher bookings, strong backlog, and positive cash flow. |
| Jan 15 | Defense contracts | Positive | +4.4% | Contracts over $60M for national security space and weapons programs. |
| Jan 13 | Earnings date set | Neutral | -0.5% | Announcement of timing and logistics for upcoming Q2 FY26 results call. |
| Dec 08 | Product showcase | Neutral | +1.9% | Showcase of EW capabilities and new RF module at AOC 2025 conference. |
Recent history shows several positive operational updates, but share reactions have sometimes been negative, including sizeable selloffs after earnings and an acquisition, alongside occasional gains on contract wins and product showcases.
Over the past few months, Mercury reported multiple milestones, including the Dec 8, 2025 expansion of its electronic warfare portfolio and a January contract win exceeding $60 million for U.S. space and strategic weapons programs. It then set an earnings date for Feb 3, 2026 and later reported Q2 FY26 results with $233 million revenue and a $1.5 billion backlog, yet the stock fell 22.32%. The March 3, 2026 SolderMask acquisition to boost capacity also saw a 4.03% decline, showing mixed price responses to generally constructive news.
Market Pulse Summary
This announcement highlights Mercury’s continued integration in the U.S. Space Development Agency’s Tranche 3 Tracking Layer via radiation-tolerant SSDRs and its broader role across 300+ programs in 35 countries. It builds on earlier national security contracts exceeding $60 million and efforts to expand manufacturing capacity. Investors should monitor how these awards translate into bookings, revenue, and margins in future results, alongside any changes in major shareholder positions and insider activity disclosed in SEC filings.
Key Terms
solid-state data recorders technical
satellite constellation technical
hypersonic missiles medical
radiation-tolerant technical
mission-critical processing technical
processing platform technical
AI-generated analysis. Not financial advice.
ANDOVER, Mass., April 02, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mercury Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRCY, www.mrcy.com), a global technology company that delivers mission-critical processing to the edge, today announced it was awarded a contract from L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) to provide solid-state data recorders (SSDRs) for the U.S. Space Development Agency (SDA) Tranche 3 Tracking Layer satellite constellation.
L3Harris received a contract award in December to build 18 infrared satellites for the Tranche 3 Tracking Layer. These tracking layer satellites will enhance the SDA Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) constellation that is designed to protect the United States from advanced missile threats, such as hypersonic missiles.
Mercury’s radiation-tolerant SSDRs are leveraged on all four tranches that L3Harris is developing for the PWSA Tracking Layer. Mercury recently completed delivery of SSDRs for all 18 of L3Harris’s Tranche 2 Tracking Layer satellites, after previously delivering data recorders for the Tranche 0 and Tranche 1 constellations.
With Tranche 3, L3Harris has moved to Mercury’s highest-capacity SSDR to date that delivers high performance and long-term data integrity in a 3U VPX form factor for space missions.
“Mercury is proud to support L3Harris to deliver a next-generation, layered defense architecture that can track missile threats in real time to protect our homeland,” said Ken Hermanny, Mercury’s Senior Vice President of Processing Technologies. “As the United States accelerates hardware production across all battlefield domains, Mercury is taking proactive measures to increase manufacturing capacity and efficiency in our operations.”
Mercury Systems – Innovation that matters®
Mercury Systems is a global technology company that delivers mission-critical processing to the edge, making advanced technologies profoundly more accessible for today’s most challenging aerospace and defense missions. The Mercury Processing Platform allows customers to tap into innovative capabilities from silicon to system scale, turning data into decisions on timelines that matter. Mercury’s products and solutions are deployed in more than 300 programs and across 35 countries, enabling a broad range of applications in mission computing, sensor processing, command and control, and communications. Mercury is headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts, and has more than 20 locations worldwide. To learn more, visit mrcy.com. (Nasdaq: MRCY)
Forward-Looking Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including those relating to the Company's focus on enhanced execution of the Company's strategic plan. You can identify these statements by the words “may,” “will,” “could,” “should,” “would,” “plans,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “continue,” “estimate,” “project,” “intend,” “likely,” “forecast,” “probable,” “potential,” and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, continued funding of defense programs, the timing and amounts of such funding, general economic and business conditions, including unforeseen weakness in the Company’s markets, effects of any U.S. federal government shutdown or extended continuing resolution, effects of increasingly volatile geopolitical unrest and regional conflicts, competition, changes in technology and methods of marketing, delays in or cost increases related to completing development, engineering and manufacturing programs, changes in customer order patterns, changes in product mix, continued success in technological advances and delivering technological innovations, changes in, or in the U.S. government’s interpretation of, federal export control or procurement rules and regulations, including tariffs, changes in, or in the interpretation or enforcement of, environmental rules and regulations, market acceptance of the Company's products, shortages in or delays in receiving components, supply chain delays or volatility for critical components, production delays or unanticipated expenses including due to quality issues or manufacturing execution issues, adherence to required manufacturing standards, capacity underutilization, increases in scrap or inventory write-offs, failure to achieve or maintain manufacturing quality certifications, such as AS9100, failure to achieve or maintain qualified business systems, such as those required by the DFARS, the impact of supply chain disruption, inflation and labor shortages, among other things, on program execution and the resulting effect on customer satisfaction, inability to fully realize the expected benefits from acquisitions, restructurings, and operational efficiency initiatives or delays in realizing such benefits, challenges in integrating acquired businesses and achieving anticipated synergies, effects of shareholder activism, increases in interest rates, changes to industrial security and cyber-security regulations and requirements and impacts from any cyber or insider threat events, changes in tax rates or tax regulations, changes to interest rate swaps or other cash flow hedging arrangements, changes to generally accepted accounting principles, difficulties in retaining key employees and customers, litigation, unanticipated costs under fixed-price service and system integration engagements, and various other factors beyond our control. These risks and uncertainties also include such additional risk factors as are discussed in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 27, 2025 and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. The Company cautions readers not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made.
INVESTOR CONTACT
Tyler Hojo, CFA
Vice President, Investor Relations
Tyler.Hojo@mrcy.com
MEDIA CONTACT
Turner Brinton
Senior Director, Corporate Communications
Turner.Brinton@mrcy.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f1ffd4fb-997f-4591-b49c-746ac6927d1e
