In a push to modernize how military operators train for high-stakes conflicts in orbit, the U.S. Space Force has awarded Slingshot Aerospace a $69.2 million contract. The 4½-year Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 3 contract was announced July 15, 2026.
The contract is designed to fund the development of advanced, artificial intelligence-driven training simulations that allow guardians to rehearse complex satellite-defense scenarios and counter dynamic adversary maneuvers in real time. The contract directly supports the Space Force’s Operational Test and Training Infrastructure (OTTI) program. The initiative aims to provide personnel with hyper-realistic digital sandboxes to practice protecting critical national security space assets without placing physical multi-million dollar systems at risk.
Rehearsing the Unpredictable: Meet TALOS
The core engine of this defense training initiative is Slingshot’s proprietary AI system named TALOS (Thinking Agent for Logical Operations and Strategy).
Traditionally, military space simulation scripts are static, forcing trainees to respond to pre-written, linear events. Under the new contract, TALOS will act as an autonomous, virtual adversary that dynamically alters its behavior based on the student’s choices.
If an operator maneuvers a target satellite to evade an intercept, TALOS’s neural network calculates real-time counter-strategies—such as adjusting its own trajectory, attempting communications jamming, or performing a mock close-approach intercept.
“TALOS models realistic spacecraft behaviors, generates strategic response options, processes vast amounts of complex data, and supports mission rehearsal across continuously evolving space scenarios”
– Slingshot Aerospace
The Safe Solution to Orbital War Games
Establishing realistic live-fire training programs in space is virtually impossible. Kinetic tests can create millions of pieces of long-lasting orbital debris, while moving actual spacecraft to practice defensive maneuvers expends finite onboard chemical propellants, dramatically reducing the operational lifespan of active military constellations.
Furthermore, space domain awareness requires recognizing extremely subtle changes in orbital variables. Guardians must learn to decipher whether an adjacent spacecraft’s shift in altitude is a routine drift correction or the beginning of a coordinated hostile rendezvous.
By building high-fidelity digital twins of these orbits, the Space Force can continually update training modules as new threat vectors, adversary capabilities, and hypersonic vehicles are identified in the field.
The massive SBIR Phase 3 award represents a significant maturation of the technology, which was initially incubated through a series of earlier, smaller-scale Phase 1 and Phase 2 SBIR pilot programs. The program will scale dramatically over the next four years to become a foundational component of the Space Force’s ongoing readiness pipeline.
