Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, provides command and control of air power throughout Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and other nations in the U.S. Air Forces Central Command region. (Staff Sgt. Alexander W. Riedel/US Air Force)

WASHINGTON: A month ago, in a galaxy not so far way, the Air Force’s Kessel Run software factory forged an agreement with Air Combat Command stipulating how the software unit will support the major command in charge of fighters, reconnaissance and command and control aircraft, according to a new service announcement.

The user agreement, which was signed Sept. 30 but announced today, is the first of agreement of its kind and formalizes the relationship between Kessel Run and ACC — particularly the software lab’s ongoing work modernizing the service’s air operations centers.

“The user agreement outlines how we will actively collaborate with them on the design and development of Kessel Run created software applications,” Jacquelynn Torson, Kessel Run’s test and integration chief, said in a response to questions from Breaking Defense.

In addition “this user agreement ensures the active participation of end users in order to mitigate operational risks to the warfighter. It allows us to deliver higher quality capabilities faster,” she said.

Kessel Run — officially known as United States Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Detachment 12 and nicknamed after a notorious route flown by Han Solo in a recent “Star Wars” movie — was established in 2017 as an in-house agile software development team for the Air Force that would rapidly deploy code to meet operator needs.

Since then, it has created multiple applications for the service’s air operations centers, including Jigsaw, a planning app for tanker operations, and Slapshot, which is used to build the master air attack plan that tasks aircraft with daily operations.

In December 2020, Kessel Run delivered a suite of nine applications, which weren’t specifically identified, called KRADOS (short for Kessel Run All Domain Operations Suite) to the 609th Air Operations Center at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. The new software replaces the legacy Theater Battle Management Core System, automating tasks and cutting down on the number of applications planners must use to carry out air tasking orders, according to an Air Force news release.

After beta testing the new apps, the 609th used KRADOS operationally for the first time in May, paving the way for the legacy system to be phased out.

“This is an extremely important moment for the command and Air Force,” Lt. Gen. Greg Guillot, 9th Air Force commander, said at the time. “Improving the air tasking order process makes AFCENT and our distributed command and control capabilities more efficient, and this innovation will also help improve AOC operations across the Air Force and in other combatant commands.”

The formalization of Kessel Run’s relationship with ACC means that it will be able to tackle smaller increments of software development, allowing the unit to deliver needed capability to air operations centers more quickly than it can today, Torson said.

Torson declined to comment on whether Kessel Run was pursuing similar partnerships with other major commands.

“It would be irresponsible to talk about future, or pending partnerships that have not reached fruition,” she said. “At this time we are laser focused on modernizing the AOC Weapon System, and providing software solutions warfighters love.”