Novel Sensing and Detection

At a mountaintop event in New Mexico today, DARPA is marking the formal transition of its Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) from an Agency-led design and construction program to ownership and operation by U.S. Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), which has announced plans to operate the telescope in Australia jointly with the Australian government. Taking place at SST’s high-altitude perch at White Sands Missile Range, the event will include remarks by DARPA Deputy Director Steven Walker and senior AFSPC and Royal Australian Air Force leadership.

DARPA yesterday handed over the Space Surveillance Telescope (SST)—the most sophisticated instrument of its kind ever developed—to U.S. Air Force Space Command at a mountaintop ceremony in New Mexico. The event marked the formal transition of SST from an Agency-led design and construction program to ownership and operation by the Air Force, which has announced plans to operate the telescope in Australia jointly with the Australian government.

DARPA’s Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program has developed and built a technology demonstration vessel that is currently undergoing open-water testing off the coast of California and recently set sail with its first payload: a prototype of a low-cost, elevated sensor mast developed through the Agency’s Towed Airborne Lift of Naval Systems (TALONS) research effort.

DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office (STO) will host a Proposers Day conference on the Aerial Dragnet on September 26, 2016, at the DARPA Conference Center, 675 North Randolph Street, Arlington, Virginia, from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM (EDT). The purpose of this conference is to provide information on the Aerial Dragnet program, promote additional discussion of the topic Aerial Dragnet is addressing, and address questions from potential proposers.

Military sensor systems typically require between three and eight years to complete, resulting in sensor technology unable to keep pace with rapidly evolving mission needs. Commercial systems of similar complexity, forced by competitive pressures, are routinely developed in one to two years.