The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command has awarded its first Commercial Solutions Opening prototype contracts under the Kronos program to MapLarge and Leidos, marking a key milestone in efforts to modernize space intelligence and secure decision advantage in an increasingly contested orbital domain. The contracts, valued at $499,828 for MapLarge and $1.43 million for Leidos, will fund the development of an integrated prototype focused on enhancing battlespace characterization, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance operations, and multi-source data fusion across the Kronos enterprise.
Kronos represents a comprehensive initiative by the Space Force to overhaul operational command and control, battle management, and space intelligence through a connected family of systems. By leveraging the Department of the Air Force’s Software Acquisition Pathway, the program is designed to deliver operationally relevant software capabilities to joint forces more rapidly than traditional acquisition methods allow. This approach underscores a broader push to integrate commercial innovations at speed, ensuring that U.S. and allied forces maintain superiority amid growing threats in space.
The prototype will deliver a minimum viable capability that improves how intelligence is processed, exploited, and woven into daily operational workflows. It aims to deliver continuous insight into adversary activities, streamline the tasking of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets, and strengthen target development processes. Initial deployment will include a mission-management tool that unifies intelligence planning, live operations, and post-mission analysis within the broader Kronos architecture, providing joint and coalition forces with a decisive operational edge.
Col. Jason West, commander of Space Systems Command’s System Delta 85, emphasized the strategic importance of the effort. “In a contested space domain, the ability to integrate intelligence at the speed of operations is critical because decision dominance is a prerequisite for space superiority,” he said. Lt. Col. Collin Greiser, system program manager for advanced space battle management within System Delta 85, highlighted the advantages of the Commercial Solutions Opening process itself. “CSOs are designed for speed: they reduce paperwork and time and, once awarded, they offer a significant level of vendor flexibility,” Greiser noted. The streamlined approach begins with concise solution briefs or pitches from industry, minimizing upfront burdens on companies and paving the way for potential follow-on production contracts without additional competition.
The awards align with Department of the Air Force priorities to embrace commercial solutions wherever practical, accelerate delivery timelines, and prioritize industry-driven innovations that directly address mission demands. Space Systems Command, which oversees a $15.6 billion annual space acquisition budget, is responsible for acquiring, developing, and fielding resilient capabilities to counter emerging threats and safeguard national interests in, from, and to space. System Delta 85 specifically focuses on delivering capabilities for space intelligence, space defense, theater support, advanced space battle management, nuclear command and control, space access, networked services, and battlespace awareness spanning geosynchronous, medium-Earth, and low-Earth orbits.
This initial step under Kronos signals a deliberate shift toward faster, more agile modernization of space intelligence tools, positioning the Space Force to outpace adversaries in a domain where timely information and seamless integration increasingly determine mission success.
