Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: KTOS) has successfully completed the third phase of a pathfinder study for migrating the Command and Control System – Consolidated (CCS-C) ground system to the Enterprise Ground Services (EGS) architecture — CCS-C currently operates a fleet of over 20 Military Satellite Communications (MILSATCOM) satellites in four different constellations.
In phase 3, Kratos demonstrated the automated deployment of the MILSATCOM EGS (MEGS), using virtualized applications on the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC)-provided Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) infrastructure hosted at the Space Management Battle Lab (SMBL). After successful deployment, the team demonstrated Kratos’ web-based user interface and automation capabilities. Traditionally, ground system capabilities take months or even years to deploy and test, however, with automated software deployment and dynamic allocation of resources employed by the Kratos team based on the EGS principles of deploying in a modern IT environment, the demonstration took less than ten minutes. This dynamic allocation of ground resources demonstrates the portability, resiliency and elasticity of the MEGS.
EGS is a critical enabling technology for the Air Force’s Space Enterprise Vision (SEV) focused on a sustainable, resilient space architecture that can respond to emerging threats and protect space-based assets. When implemented, EGS will result in a best of breed, service-based ground architecture for all Air Force spacecraft that will enable Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) to fight and win a war that extends into space. AFSPC is implementing EGS with prototyping activities to mature the concepts, technologies, EGS standards, and transition paths for legacy and future ground systems.
The Kratos study for MILSATCOM is a 27 month effort that consists of four phases and is an essential step in the evolution of CCS-C to exploit the benefits of EGS. Phase 3 concluded on 12 July with a successful demonstration. Phase 4 will be completed in December of 2018.
Executive Comment
Larry Lind, VP, Kratos Federal Solutions Group, said that this demonstration of phase three illustrates the capability of an EGS environment to be both resilient and elastic. Kratos’ involvement with EGS goes beyond the CCS-C/EGS interoperability study as the company is actively involved in defining and refining the standards that will make EGS a reality.
