Peraton has secured a multi-million-dollar contract on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)'s Space-WATCH program to improve and enhance capabilities to detect threats in space, the company announced December 19. The period of performance is 22 months.
The goal of the Space-WATCH program is to provide real-time persistent tracking of objects in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) using low-cost in-situ sensors on commercial satellites. This awareness will allow ground-based operators to identify anomalies or unexpected events within a timely fashion to plan and execute the appropriate actions.
A critical part of this process will be the establishment of an "as-a-service" model to incentivize data collection from non-government owned sensors that can be processed to form a single operational picture of LEO. A key capability that Peraton provides during the TA2 phase is processing the enormous amount of data coming at high velocity from large commercial proliferated constellations. The goal is to provide actionable information with low false alarms to end users in tactical timescales. To do so, Peraton provides data fusion, pattern of life analysis, and novel algorithm designs necessary to properly make sense of the data.
"Space Domain Awareness is the foundation for space flight safety and our national security space capabilities" said Drew Uplinger, acting president of Peraton's Space & Intelligence sector. "In an era where threats and opportunities arise from above, understanding the space environment is crucial for securing our nation's interests in, from, and to space, and maintaining our competitive advantage in the final frontier."
Source: Peraton