DARPA Picks Three Industry Teams to Work on Space-Based Data Processing Tech 'Pit Boss'

Three industry teams led by prime contractors BAE Systems, Scientific Systems and SEAKR Engineering have been selected to design an autonomous mission management platform for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency™s Project Blackjack, C4ISRNET reported Thursday.

The Pit Boss system will use a constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites to acquire and process persistent tracking information, target localization and other data in orbit without the need to send it to a ground station. DARPA envisions the system to improve space-to-surface communications, positioning, navigation and timing capabilities and critical data dissemination.

Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) announced Tuesday that it teamed up with Scientific Systems to design Pit Boss. SEAKR will collaborate with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), NKrypt, Kythera Space Solutions, Advanced Solutions and Applied Technology Associates on the autonomous system.

Project Blackjack seeks to demonstrate a proliferated LEO satellite constellation for various military applications.

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