Rocket Lab received a $266 million U.S. Space Force contract, its largest agreement to date, for up to 18 suborbital launches that will support missile defense capabilities.

Under the contract, the space company, which provides launch services, spacecraft, payloads and satellite components, on Monday said it will perform 12 suborbital launches, with up to six additional launches, the first of which is set to take place by the end of 2026.

Most of the launches will take place from a new company location at the Pacific Spaceport Complex-Alaska in Kodiak, Alaska. It also has two other launch sites, in Virginia and New Zealand.

Established in December 2019, the U.S. Space Force is the space service branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. The branch is responsible for conducting global space operations and protect U.S. and allied interests in space.

"The size and scale of this contract reflects the Space Force's confidence in our ability to meet their urgent national security demands with speed, responsiveness, and scale, and we're proud to provide the high-frequency launch capacity required to keep the U.S. ahead of global threats," Rocket Lab Chief Executive Sir Peter Beck said.

Rocket Lab got its start as a launch provider two decades ago but has been acquiring businesses tied to satellite production and operations in recent years, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

The space firm is one of only a handful in the world that can launch rockets into orbit and has launched 88 small-payload rockets mostly into low-Earth orbit, the Journal said.

Rocket Lab's small-sized rockets is appealing to militaries that sometimes need to get spy satellites into space quickly, The Journal said.

In March, Rocket Lab secured a $190 million contract from the Pentagon to help test hypersonic flight conditions using its smaller Electron rockets. The company is also working with defense contractor RTX on the U.S.'s Golden Dome, a space-based missile-defense shield.

Last month, Rocket Lab agreed to buy Iridium Communications, a move that would give it control over a satellite fleet and access to wireless resources it could use to compete with SpaceX.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires