Air Force to Field Kessel Run Command and Control Product
Airmen from the 60th Aerial Port Squadron prepare to load COVID-19 supplies onto a C-5M Super Galaxy as it sits on the flight line at Travis Air Force Base, California, April 28. Jonathon Carnell/U.S. Air Force
By
Mila Jasper
The service wants feedback on a suite of tools called Kessel Run All Domain Operations Suite, or KRADOS, to continue developing it.
The Air Force’s Kessel Run and Air Combat Command are fielding new software that will replace the legacy system the service uses to plan and execute missions at air operations centers, according to a Wednesday press release.
Kessel Run, an Air Force software factory, and ACC designated the Kessel Run All Domain Operations Suite, or KRADOS, a minimum viable product this month, according to the press release. MVP designation allows for software delivery to users in order to “advance its basic capabilities to a more complete operational package the warfighter can begin using in operations.”
“This is a huge milestone for Kessel Run, ACC and our users,” Col. Brian Beachkofski, commander of Kessel Run, said in the press release. “Only a year after delivering stand-alone applications to support operations, we’ve fielded an MVP suite of nine applications connected by a common data layer for usability assessment and user feedback.”
Air Force Central Command's Air Operations Center has already previewed some of the software tools; the MVP suite builds on this preview by adding more tools as well as integrating them to create a system covering the entire AOC planning and execution process, according to the press release. Now that KRADOS is being fielded, Kessel Run developers will be able to iterate on the basic capabilities based on feedback from actual users.
“The AOC WS is Kessel Run’s most complex development effort, and while the program still has a long road ahead, we are definitely picking up speed and the KRADOS MVP is an important point of progress,” Col. Timothy Hofman, the chief of AOC and AFFOR Requirements Division, said in the press release.
KRADOS, under the Air Operations Center Weapon System program, will replace the legacy Theater Battle Management Core Systems. The “decades-old” air tasking order system will begin to phase out of the AOC WS program over the next year, according to the press release.