Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: KTOS) revealed that the firm’s fully virtualized satellite communications (SATCOM) ground system, OpenSpace®, was employed as part of BlueHalo’s milestone demonstration for the U.S. Space Force (USSF) Space Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) Satellite Communication Augmentation Resource (SCAR) program.
BlueHalo, the prime contractor for the SCAR program, successfully demonstrated the integrated backend mission services to USSF Guardian operators at the 2024 Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
During the demonstration, Guardians received an operator orientation for the SCAR system interface, including the system scheduler and backend mission processor. Kratos’ OpenSpace Platform is an important piece of the backend system which will pair with BlueHalo’s BADGER adaptive phased array product to provide multi-beam, multi-orbit mission operations.
Kratos’ OpenSpace Platform is a fully software-defined and orchestrated satellite ground system, enabling scalable deployments within an elastic, cloud-agnostic, virtualized environment built upon widely accepted industry standards and a containerized architecture. With OpenSpace, Guardians can instantiate new services in minutes instead of the weeks, or even months, commonly required with traditional hardware-based ground systems.
BlueHalo’s $1.4 billion SCAR program was announced by the USSF Space RCO in May of 2022 to significantly increase satellite control capacity and support their dynamic missions going forward. The program covers initial design through full-rate production–delivering a fleet of transportable, ground-based phased-array antennas and accompanying ground electronics and software to provide robust, flexible command and control capabilities for USSF satellites.
“The demonstration at the Space Symposium showed vividly how the SCAR Program is leading in the digital transformation of satellite ground systems to become a more dynamic and resilient part of space domain operations,” said Phil Carrai, President of Kratos’ Space, Training & Cyber Division. “With OpenSpace and Bluehalo’s BADGER technology, Guardians will be able to rely upon an agile network infrastructure from the gateway to the edge and all points in between.”
“BlueHalo has checked off another milestone for the SCAR program–not only demonstrating the system’s backend mission services and user interface but, most importantly, collecting valuable insight from Guardian operators who will rely on this system for critical space operations,” said Mary Clum, BlueHalo Executive Vice President and Sector President of Labs. “With the strong partnerships we have forged with the Space Rapid Capabilities Office and our partners like Kratos, BlueHalo is proud to deliver innovations that will define our national security capabilities for decades to come.”