Space Force awards Slingshot $69 million for AI-enabled training technology
Slingshot Aerospace has won a $69.2 million U.S. Space Force contract to develop artificial intelligence-based training environments that will allow military operators to rehearse satellite defense missions and respond to simulated adversary actions in orbit.
The 4½-year Small Business Innovation Research Phase 3 contract supports the service's Operational Test and Training Infrastructure program, or OTTI, an effort to give Space Force units more realistic tools for testing systems and preparing personnel for increasingly complex operations in space.
Slingshot said July 15 that it will provide AI-enabled environments in which Space Force operators can rehearse scenarios involving the protection and defense of U.S. space systems, compare possible responses and practice making decisions under conditions designed to resemble an actual conflict.
The award reflects the Pentagon's interest in using artificial intelligence not only to analyze large amounts of data, but also to improve how military personnel train for fast-moving operational scenarios. In the space domain, where satellites can maneuver, interfere with communications or approach other spacecraft, training systems must account for an opponent whose behavior may change during an exercise.
Slingshot, based in Windsor, Colorado, specializes in satellite tracking and orbital data analytics. The company has applied those capabilities to training tools designed to prepare Space Force personnel for operations in a contested space environment.
Under the contract, Slingshot said it will provide "high-fidelity, AI-enabled environments where they can rehearse protect-and-defend scenarios, evaluate courses of action, and sharpen decision-making under realistic operational conditions."
The program is built around TALOS, short for Thinking Agent for Logical Operations and Strategy. Slingshot describes TALOS as an AI-powered training and strategy agent that can act as an autonomous virtual opponent during exercises.
Rather than following a predetermined script, TALOS is designed to simulate how another spacecraft could maneuver, respond to an operator's actions or interfere with a mission. That approach is intended to make exercises less predictable and force trainees to adjust their decisions as a scenario develops.
"TALOS models realistic spacecraft behaviors, generates strategic response options, processes vast amounts of complex data, and supports mission rehearsal across continuously evolving space scenarios," the company said.
The technology was initially developed through an earlier SBIR contract.
The Space Force faces a particular training challenge because many potential conflict scenarios in orbit cannot be safely or routinely reproduced using actual spacecraft. Operators must prepare to identify unusual satellite movements, assess whether they pose a threat and determine how to respond without escalating a confrontation or disrupting other missions.
Digital training environments can allow those events to be simulated without placing operational satellites at risk. They can also be updated as new threats, tactics and spacecraft capabilities emerge, rather than requiring trainers to build each scenario around a fixed sequence of events.
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