Space Force awards contracts to Leidos, MapLarge for ‘battle planning’ software

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force awarded contracts to data analytics firms Leidos and MapLarge to support what the military calls battle management and command and control — the process of understanding what is happening in orbit, deciding what it means and directing a response. 

The awards, announced April 22, are the first under a new program called Kronos that develops software tools used by military and intelligence units. 

The prototype awards are valued at about $1.4 million for Leidos and $500,000 for MapLarge, the Space Systems Command said. 

Space operators today rely on a mix of legacy systems to process data about satellites, debris and potential threats. Those tools can be slow to integrate new data and often operate in isolation. Kronos is intended to replace that patchwork with a more unified system that brings together data from multiple sources and presents it in near real time.

“We take strategy from commanders, and turn that into executable tasks,” said Lt. Col. Collin Greiser, system program manager for advanced space battle management.

The initial contracts focus on building software that can process intelligence data and integrate it into operational workflows. The Space Systems Command said the prototypes will help operators maintain a “continuous understanding of adversary actions, improve how intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets are tasked, and support target development.”

Commercial technologies for the Kronos program are screened through the Space Domain Awareness Tools, Applications and Processing Lab, known as the TAP Lab, which operates in Colorado Springs and has activity in Maui, Hawaii. The lab runs short development cycles in which companies are asked to tackle specific military problems, such as distinguishing routine satellite maneuvers from potentially hostile behavior.

Greiser said companies submit bids for the Kronos program using the Pentagon’s Commercial Solutions Opening, a contracting vehicle used to fast track procurements. The first solicitation, issued in December, led to the Leidos and MapLarge awards, with additional contracts expected later this year.

“I’m looking for commercial capabilities that support what we call the space tasking cycle,” Greiser told reporters last week at the Space Symposium. He described that cycle as the space-based equivalent of planning and executing military operations: turning strategy into operational plans, identifying targets, selecting courses of action and assessing results.

Kronos is meant to support that entire process. “It’s a software system designed to get after the space battle management plan,” he said.

The users of Kronos software include the National Space Defense Center, which focuses on potential threats to satellites; the Combined Space Operations Center, which manages day-to-day space operations and tracks objects in orbit; and regional military headquarters such as U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. European Command.

Those organizations depend on timely and accurate data about the space environment to support military operations on Earth, from communications to missile warning.

The move toward commercial software reflects frustration with traditional defense acquisition models, Greiser said. Government-built systems have typically been developed over years in what officials describe as “waterfall” cycles, with the government owning the code.

Greiser said Kronos is taking a different approach. “I’m trying to turn that around and do very fast, rapid prototyping.”