Kratos Awarded Contract to Streamline Hypersonic Material's Development

In-Depth Modeling, Simulation of Hypersonic Environments Will Lead to a Robust Set of Hypersonic Test Setpoints to Enable Rapid Evaluation, Transition of Various Thermal Protection System Materials

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: KTOS), a technology company in Defense, National Security and Global Markets, announced today that it has been awarded a contract through the Department of War’s Joint Hypersonics Transition Office to support test and evaluation of thermal protection systems for hypersonic vehicles. For this program, Kratos will leverage decades of expertise in hypersonics to analyze various missions and flight environments to understand appropriate testing conditions. Kratos will establish standard test conditions and techniques to accelerate materials development and can be used as a baseline for other similar aerothermal test facilities.

“The Kratos team is committed to advancing materials for hypersonics through testing and evaluation,” said Ben Dempsey, Kratos SRE Vice President of Programs. “Our focus is on accelerating the development of systems for our warfighter. This begins with increased throughput of our nation’s testing infrastructure, and by making investments in new infrastructure, like the recently awarded Project Helios.”

The test methodologies developed under this program will serve as a model for the hypersonic testing community, accelerating the advancement and deployment of next-generation U.S. hypersonic vehicle technologies. Additionally, Kratos will execute a series of material test campaigns leveraging these procedures that will validate the methodology and mature material solutions.

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.