Filtronic has landed the largest single order in its history: a $68.1 million contract from SpaceX to supply RF hardware for the Starlink broadband constellation.

The order covers the UK company's Cerus E-Band Gallium Nitride Solid State Power Amplifier (SSPA), the unit that boosts signals in the 71–86 GHz millimetre-wave band used for high-capacity gateway links between Starlink ground stations and orbiting satellites. Production units will start shipping throughout FY2028 and continue into early FY2029.

Filtronic CEO Nat Edington called the award "another significant milestone for Filtronic, providing extended order visibility and coverage over the next couple of years."

The scale matters for a company of Filtronic's size. A single $68.1 million award stretching over roughly two fiscal years gives the Sedgefield-based manufacturer revenue visibility well beyond what its traditional defence and telecoms customer base typically provides. SpaceX has been building that relationship over several years, placing progressively larger orders for E-band amplifiers as Starlink's gateway infrastructure has expanded.

The timing also signals where SpaceX expects its ground-segment demand to sit in the second half of the decade. Starlink's gateway architecture depends on high-power E-band links to aggregate traffic from individual satellites, and each additional orbital shell and subscriber base pushes gateway capacity requirements higher. Committing now for deliveries running into early FY2029 suggests SpaceX is planning continued gateway deployments — not a tapering of ground-station buildout as the constellation matures.

For Filtronic, the GaN-based Cerus line is central to that demand. GaN amplifiers deliver the power efficiency and thermal performance that continuous high-throughput gateway duty cycles require, and the design has evidently met SpaceX's qualification bar for volume production.

The order does not shift delivery schedules into the near term: first production shipments remain more than a fiscal year out. What it does change is the composition of Filtronic's forward book — anchored by a single US mega-constellation customer whose capex plans carry the order through FY2028 and into FY2029, precisely the visibility Edington highlights.

Whether further awards follow will depend on how Starlink's gateway footprint grows and whether Filtronic can hold its position as a qualified supplier as SpaceX's volumes scale.