Kratos Sre, Inc.

Kratos Sre, Inc., operating under the Kratos Defense & Rocket Support Services Division and doing business as TLA Associates, is a San Diego-based manufacturer and advanced materials testing specialist delivering ultra-high temperature materials characterization, thermal protection system evaluation, and specialized manufacturing services to the Department of Defense and NASA as a prime contractor on 80% of recent awards. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc., competes on an open, full-and-open basis (no set-asides), and derives roughly 46% of its award count from the Defense Contract Management Agency, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and Naval Sea Systems Command.

Kratos Sre's core capability centers on ultra-high temperature materials testing up to 6,000 Fahrenheit, thermal property characterization, mechanical testing of advanced composites and ceramics, and specialized manufacturing and testing services supporting propulsion systems, reentry vehicles, thermal protection systems, and hypersonic platform development. Representative prime work includes a $68.7 million Army Other Transaction Agreement awarded September 2025 for design and construction of a 20 megawatt mid-tier arc jet facility prototype (running through September 2030) in San Diego; a $41.5 million Naval Strategic Systems Programs cost-plus-fixed-fee definitive contract awarded July 2023 for femtosecond laser machining, high-dynamic-range testing and measurement, and 16-kilowatt laser diode system modifications in Birmingham, Alabama; a $7.5 million Naval Sea Systems Command single-award BPA for ultra-high temperature alloy testing services (through May 2030, performed in Westlake, Maryland, with five task orders totaling $2.6 million awarded between May and October 2025); a $7 million NASA Ames single-award BPA for thermal protection system material property testing (through November 2027, performed in San Diego, with six BPA calls issued totaling $4.6 million since November 2022); and a $4.83 million NASA Marshall Space Flight Center single-award indefinite delivery contract for propulsion and space system materials testing (awarded July 2025, through June 2030, with a $250,000 delivery order for the MMPACTS lunar surface construction capability project awarded September 2025).

Customer concentration sits with defense and civilian space agencies. The top five funding agencies account for 77% of combined potential value across recent awards, led by the Air Force Lifecycle Management Center's $499 million Anti-Tamper IDIQ (multiple-award vehicle, one task order issued March 2024 for white paper on flat panel optics), the Army Research, Development and Engineering Command's $88.1 million in other transaction agreements ($68.7 million for the arc jet facility prototype plus a $19.35 million OT IDV awarded June 2026 for uncooled infrared seeker development for Javelin Close Combat Missile System), the Defense Contract Management Agency (28 awards, $45.5 million combined potential value), Naval Sea Systems Command (7 awards, $43.6 million combined potential value), and GSA Federal Acquisition Service (6 awards, $19.3 million combined potential value). The potential-value ranking diverges sharply from volume: AFLCMC's two large OT vehicles dominate dollars but represent only 1% of award count, while DCMA's 28 awards carry less than 10% of total potential value, signaling a high-volume, lower-value customer base alongside selective large-dollar defense-industrial-base development efforts.

Kratos Sre maintains positions on five named parent vehicles, anchored by the GSA Federal Supply Schedule GS35F0553L (52 task orders, $92.1 million combined potential value), an Air Force Indefinite Delivery Contract S5105A04A0005 (16 task orders, $5.1 million combined potential value), a NASA Marshall Space Flight Center IDC (8 task orders, $3.9 million combined potential value), the NASA Ames BPA for thermal protection systems (6 task orders, $4.6 million combined potential value), and a Navy Indefinite Delivery Contract (6 task orders). Activity has grown year over year from five prime awards in 2022 to nineteen in 2025, with seven awards (combined potential value $45.5 million) reaching ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months and therefore facing recompete exposure.

Kratos Sre operates primarily with its own delivery teams; across SCI-reportable prime contracts, subcontractors account for 6% of total contractor hours, with only two named subcontractors reported. In its subcontractor role, the company delivers materials testing and characterization services to primes including Lockheed Martin (MK21A reentry vehicle nosetip instrumentation, multiple task orders since February 2024), ATK Launch Systems (Space Launch System booster production support, two task orders in 2026), Battelle Memorial Institute (carbon-carbon composite evaluation and mechanical property characterization under the MOC3HA industrial-base expansion effort), Modern Technology Solutions (all-source scientific and technical intelligence analysis supporting Air Force National Air and Space Intelligence Center ballistic missile and information warfare analysis), and Valkyrie Enterprises (research subcontracts under the IGF task order program and MIT Lincoln Laboratory research subcontracts).

SCI-reported service-contract activity shows $5.5 million invoiced across prime records in FY2023–FY2025 (FY2025 at $2.2 million, FY2024 at $2 million, FY2023 at $1.2 million), with workforce scaling from 5.8 FTEs in FY2023 to 12.2 FTEs in FY2025, reflecting growth in federal services delivery. Government-paid hourly rates on federal services contracts captured in SCI run from a 10th percentile of $60.61 per hour to a median of $134.53 per hour, with senior labor through $245.86 per hour, positioning the vendor in the mid-to-upper range for specialized technical and engineering work. SCI is a partial view covering only service contracts above $150,000 and excludes the substantial materials goods manufacturing, OT agreements, and non-federal revenue that characterize the enterprise.