Kratos Breaks Ground on New AN/SPY-1 Radar and Helios Hypersonics Testing Facilities in Indiana

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 14, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: KTOS), a technology company in defense, national security, and global markets, today celebrated a joint groundbreaking ceremony, at the Westgate Academy in Odon, Indiana, marking the beginning of construction for its new Helios and AN/SPY-1 facilities. These facilities, which are the product of $35 million in funding through the Department of War’s Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) program and cost-sharing from Kratos, represent a significant step forward in advancing defense capabilities, innovation, and the long-term growth of the state’s defense ecosystem.

Kratos’ $35 million investment reinforces its commitment to supporting the U.S. Department of War and its mission partners by aggressively expanding the company's engineering, integration, testing, and manufacturing capabilities.

The new footprint will feature two distinct, purpose-built complexes:

AN/SPY-1, also referred to as the Indiana Radar Integration Complex (IRIC): An approximately 183,000-square-foot SPY-1 facility designed to establish a long-term organic capability for the repair, testing, integration, and sustainment of the Navy’s AN/SPY-1 radar system. IRIC will provide a scalable infrastructure and workforce foundation to support legacy and next-generation radar systems. This state-of-the-art capability is designed to improve Navy Fleet readiness, reduce sustainment bottlenecks, and increase critical surge capacity.

The HELIOS Arc Jet & Laser Facility: This complex will advance next-generation directed energy technologies, delivering high-energy laser solutions for integrated air and missile defense, counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS), and force protection missions. Helios is being designed to address current gaps in the U.S. Defense Industrial Base by providing essential testing infrastructure for thermal protection systems used in hypersonic vehicles. By combining a 20-25 MW arc jet capability with a 200-kW fiber laser system, Helios aims to bridge the gap between low-fidelity screening solutions and the exquisite, large-scale arc jet facilities at government testing sites. This unique capability will dramatically increase opportunities for material evaluation in support of both hypersonic and strategic national defense efforts.

Dave Carter, President of Kratos Defense and Rocket Support Services, said, “The groundbreaking of the IRIC and Helios facilities furthers Kratos’ support to the U.S. Armed Forces. By bringing together advanced radar sustainment and cutting-edge hypersonic material testing under one strategic umbrella, we are addressing critical readiness bottlenecks. Indiana has the mission, talent, partnerships, and industrial commitment to become an even more significant contributor to the nation’s defense—and today is evidence of that momentum.”

Together, these facilities underscore Kratos' dedication to strengthening the nation's defense industrial base and delivering mission-critical solutions to the warfighter.

Eric DeMarco, President and CEO of Kratos, said, “Kratos is making deliberate internal investments to rapidly develop and field advanced capabilities our warfighters require against peer adversaries. The new IRIC and Helios facilities are prime examples of how we approach commercial investment in national security to be first to market with proven, cost-effective capabilities. We are proud to expand our partnership with the state of Indiana to deliver real, mission-relevant products and systems, ensuring that our military has the national security relevant hardware it needs to decisively execute its missions.”

About Kratos Defense & Security Solutions
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: KTOS) is a technology, products, system and software company addressing the defense, national security, and commercial markets. Kratos makes true internally funded research, development, capital and other investments, to rapidly develop, produce and field solutions that address our customers’ mission critical needs and requirements. At Kratos, affordability is a technology, and we seek to utilize proven, leading-edge approaches and technology, not unproven bleeding edge approaches or technology, with Kratos’ approach designed to reduce cost, schedule and risk, enabling us to be first to market with cost effective solutions. We believe that Kratos is known as an innovative disruptive change agent in the industry, a company that is an expert in designing products and systems up front for successful rapid, large quantity, low-cost future manufacturing which is a value-add competitive differentiator for our large traditional prime system integrator partners and also to our government and commercial customers. Kratos intends to pursue program and contract opportunities as the prime or lead contractor when we believe that our probability of win (PWin) is high and any investment required by Kratos is within our capital resource comfort level. We intend to partner and team with a large, traditional system integrator when our assessment of PWin is greater or required investment is beyond Kratos’ comfort level. Kratos’ primary business areas include virtualized ground systems for satellites and space vehicles including software for command & control (C2) and telemetry, tracking and control (TT&C), jet powered unmanned aerial drone systems, hypersonic vehicles and rocket systems, propulsion systems for drones, missiles, loitering munitions, supersonic systems, space craft and launch systems, C5ISR and microwave electronic products for missile, radar, missile defense, space, satellite, counter UAS, directed energy, communication and other systems, and virtual & augmented reality training systems for the warfighter. For more information, visit www.KratosDefense.com and follow Kratos on LinkedIn and X.

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are made on the basis of the current beliefs, expectations and assumptions of the management of Kratos and are subject to significant risks and uncertainty. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and Kratos undertakes no obligation to update or revise these statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Although Kratos believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, these statements involve many risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from what may be expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. For a further discussion of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to the business of Kratos in general, see the risk disclosures in the Annual Report on Form 10-K of Kratos for the year ended December 28, 2025, and in subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K and other filings made with the SEC by Kratos.

Press Contact: 
Claire Cantrell
claire.cantrell@kratosdefense.com

Investor Relations: 
877-934-4687
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