KBR wins $176M Air Force space surveillance support contract
An aerial view of the Maui Space Surveillance Complex. Space Command photo.
By
Ross Wilkers
Work will take place at a site in Hawaii that has operated since the 1950s and was originally stood up to monitor Cold War-era missile tests.
KBR has won a seven-year, $176 million contract to maintain and modernize an Air Force facility that functions as a key cog in how the U.S. military conducts space surveillance missions.
Located in Hawaii, the Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing Site has been in operation since the 1950s and was originally stood up to monitor missile tests during the Cold War. Now the site called AMOS is home to several telescopes that help operators monitor satellites and other assets in space.
The Air Force Research Laboratory ran the procurement and received two bids in total, according to the Pentagon’s Thursday awards digest. AFRL operates the site in partnership with Space Force’s 5th Space Surveillance Squadron.
KBR will be responsible for operations, equipment maintenance and upgrades to legacy space sensors at the AMOS site.
AMOS is part of the Maui Space Surveillance Complex, which resides at an altitude of approximately 10,000 feet above sea level and houses high-performance computing work supporting space surveillance activities. NASA also operates a telescope at the complex.
Space is a priority market for KBR in this iteration of its strategy, as shown in its $800 million acquisition of Centauri in 2020 and $737 million buy of LinQuest that closed in September.