Kratos awarded $39 million satellite comms monitoring contract

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions announced on 6 December that it had been awarded a $39 million sole-source contract for geolocation global support services by the US government.

The award is a five year contract that includes a base year and four one-year options, for a total value of up to $39 million with work on the initial $7.7 million base year contract having begun on 1 December. 

Under the contract Kratos will provide continuous RF monitoring services for government leased bandwidth on commercial satellites and bandwidth on military satellite communications; including bandwidth identified by the Combined Space Operations Center.

Kratos will also support resolving interference events through employment of mitigation strategies and geolocation activities. These services use Kratos products including Monics and satID to identify, isolate and geolocate interfering signals. Monitoring services will provide the US government the ability to efficiently utilize leased bandwidth, saving money and resources while ensuring that critical satellite communication links stay operational.

Matt Langenbahn, vice president of RF Sensing Systems for Kratos said, ‘Kratos’ commercially owned and operated global RF space domain awareness network uses proprietary sensors and software to collect and deliver persistent, day or night real-time data. The global network augments US government satellite communication with detection services for anomalies, manoeuvres and interference. Kratos’ Mission Partner approach helps the government and satellite operators understand more about the health, location, attribution, performance and other behavioural factors about satellites in space.’

Kratos offers RF monitoring services, also referred to as spectral services, with a global network of antennas and sensors necessary to provide constant bandwidth monitoring, detection and geolocation interference in the C- and Ku- bands specified by the Combined Force Space Component Command.

‘Kratos technology assures that US multi-domain operations continue unabated. This service is just one of the many ways Kratos is aligning commercial capabilities with US government strategies by ensuring satellite communication links in support of national defense,” said Phil Carrai, president of Kratos Space, Training and Cybersecurity Division.