Airmen at work at one of the U.S. Air Force’s Distributed Common Ground System sites. Photo: U.S. Air Force

Kratos Defense and Security Solutions demonstrated successful performance on the second 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 from four different spacecraft families.

In phase two, Kratos demonstrated data source independent automation over the EGS message bus using Kratos’ TAO-Data Source Independent (DSI); web based support schedule creation and execution, also over the EGS message bus; elastic Telemetry and Commanding Server (TCS); cloud deployment; and automated deployment concepts. These capabilities were demonstrated both on the local Kratos Enterprise Ground Services (KEGS) lab and on a secure commercially available cloud based platform. Following the demonstration, the program office approved starting phase three.

EGS is an enabling technology for the U.S. Air Force’s Space Enterprise Vision (SEV). EGS enables a sustainable space architecture that can respond to threats and protect space-based assets, with two other SEV components focusing on enhanced satellite communications and satellite manufacture. Fully implemented, EGS will result in a common service-based ground architecture for all U.S. Air Force spacecraft, according to the release. Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) is implementing EGS with prototyping activities to mature the concepts, technologies, EGS standards, and transition paths for legacy and future ground systems.