Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has received multiple contract awards totaling more than $100 million to develop prototype mission applications and cyber capabilities that deliver space intelligence data to joint forces, the San Diego company announced on October 5, 2026. The prototypes will support electronic warfare (EW) and offensive cyber operations, including access and battle damage assessment (BDA), and will draw on Kratos’ commercial radio frequency (RF) sensor network.
Kratos did not identify the customer, the number of awards, individual values or periods of performance, citing security, competitive and other considerations. The announcement comes as the U.S. Space Force sharply expands counterspace spending: its fiscal 2027 budget request includes $21 billion for space control programs, a 158% increase over fiscal 2026, much of it classified. The service organizes counterspace around three mission areas (orbital, electromagnetic and cyberspace warfare), and the Kratos work maps onto the last two. It is also the company’s second space award of roughly $100 million since July 13, 2026, when it announced a sole-source production contract for a ground-based modular space domain awareness (SDA) system.
Kratos Space Contracts Target RF Collection and Joint Targeting
According to Kratos, the work will give warfighters the means to collect and process complex RF signals, build intelligence on the operational environment and feed the joint targeting cycle, the process used to identify, prioritize and target assets. U.S. joint doctrine runs that cycle in six phases, from the commander’s objectives through target development, capabilities analysis, force assignment and mission execution to assessment. The prototypes touch both ends: RF characterization supports target development, while the BDA capability addresses assessment, the phase that tells commanders whether an effect worked and whether to reengage.
The EW and cyber elements share one requirement: precise, current knowledge of which satellite carriers to engage and where uplink transmitters sit. The Space Force accepted its Meadowlands jammer, an upgrade to the Counter Communications System (CCS) 10.2 operated by Mission Delta 3, for operational use in June 2026, and its fiscal 2027 request seeks funding for five new space electronic warfare tactical operations centers (SEWTOCs) beyond the single center at Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado. In cyber operations, access means establishing a path into a target system; RF data characterizing satellite links and ground terminals can help show where such paths exist.
Kratos has not said which agency or command will use the prototypes or when delivery is due. The company said the contracts draw on its software products, analytics and engineering in RF, signal processing, cybersecurity and software development, a base it intends to adapt as requirements shift. Greg Caicedo, Senior Vice President at Kratos, said building on proven technology lets the company “deliver new capabilities faster and keep pace as the space environment changes.”
How the KnownSpace Network and Recon+ Terminals Collect RF Data
The collection layer is the KnownSpace Network, which Kratos calls the largest commercially owned, commercially operated (COCO) RF sensor network, with more than 190 sensors at over 20 locations worldwide. Earlier company material cited more than 140 fixed and steerable sensors across a similar number of sites, so the sensor count has grown by roughly a third. Publicly available company specifications indicate L, S, C, X and Ku band coverage, monitored around the clock from a network operations center staffed by SDA and satellite communications (SATCOM) signal specialists.
Passive RF sensing covers gaps that radar and optical sensors leave. Ground-based radar coverage thins beyond low Earth orbit, and electro-optical telescopes depend on clear, dark skies. By capturing native emissions, RF sensors can detect maneuvers in geosynchronous orbit (GEO) through Doppler shifts, geolocate ground transmitters including jammers, and show what a spacecraft is doing rather than only where it is. Kratos has claimed GEO positioning accuracy better than 100 meters through passive RF ranging, a company figure not independently verified.
KnownSpace Recon+ adds field-portable SDA terminals to the fixed network. Kratos has not published their size, weight, band coverage or crew requirements. Their value lies in placing collection closer to deployed forces, beyond the reach of fixed commercial sites.
Analysis: The awards move commercial RF data from space situational awareness into the targeting chain, from cataloguing what is in orbit to deciding what to engage and confirming the result. That fits a Space Force buying jammers and operations centers faster than it can build government-owned sensor coverage; a COCO network offers global reach without the service owning sites abroad. It also raises questions the announcement leaves open: how targeting-grade commercial data is assured, how host nations view sensors on their soil feeding offensive operations, and whether commercial sites become military targets in a conflict. For Kratos, whose space, training and cyber business grew 8.7% organically in the second quarter of 2026, well behind its hypersonic and rocket work, intelligence and effects contracts open a path beyond the ground-system software that anchors much of its space portfolio.
The customer, delivery schedule and transition path from prototype to production remain undisclosed. Kratos’ July SDA award offers one precedent: that system entered production after development, testing and demonstration. The next markers are Kratos’ third-quarter 2026 results, which may reflect the awards in bookings, and congressional action on the $21 billion fiscal 2027 space control request.