The United States Space Force has awarded a contract worth $27 million to Slingshot Aerospace to enhance the training of its personnel, known as Guardians. This initiative will utilize the company’s TALOS AI system to simulate adversarial actions in orbital warfare scenarios, significantly modernizing the training process.
According to Slingshot Aerospace, TALOS is designed to respond dynamically to trainees’ movements rather than adhering to a predetermined script. This capability allows for a more realistic training environment as the AI can adapt to evolving scenarios in the space domain. Tim Solms, CEO of Slingshot, remarked that this adaptability enables TALOS to integrate new algorithms and tools as they emerge, enhancing the overall training experience.
Innovative Training Solutions for Space Operations
The 18-month contract was awarded through the Space Force’s Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO), a procurement process aimed at streamlining contracts with innovative companies. This contract builds on a previous 39-month Strategic Funding Increase award totaling $25 million, which allowed the Space Training and Readiness Command to test TALOS capabilities.
Solms emphasized that this latest contract is part of a broader integration program supporting the Space Force’s Operational Test and Training Infrastructure (OTTI). The aim is to consolidate various training tools into a single, classified environment where Guardians can engage in realistic and high-stakes scenarios. “Slingshot’s TALOS serves as the thinking adversary, or Red Cell capability, while additional tools simulate friendly forces and act as virtual referees,” he explained.
The TALOS AI system, launched in July 2025, is intended to replicate the behavior of satellites in orbit for training and simulations. It learns from real-world operations and adapts as the orbital environment changes. Slingshot claims to track approximately 95% of all payload-sized objects across various orbital regimes, providing a comprehensive dataset that supports the functionality of TALOS.
The Future of Orbital Warfare Training
The data collected by Slingshot is said to represent the largest available corpus of commercially accessible astrometric and photometric data. This extensive dataset includes event detections and patterns of life information, which enhance the AI’s ability to simulate real-world conditions effectively.
As the landscape of space operations continues to evolve, the integration of such advanced technologies into training programs is essential. The collaboration between the Space Force and Slingshot Aerospace signifies a commitment to preparing Guardians for the complexities of modern warfare in the orbital arena. With this contract, the Space Force aims to ensure that its personnel are equipped to handle the challenges posed by adversaries in space, setting a new standard for military training methodologies.
