SEAKR moving forward with DARPA’s Pit Boss project

SEAKR Engineering will continue developing the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Pit Boss as the sole prime contractor, the company announced April 28.

Pit Boss is the autonomous mission management system that will be used for DARPA’s Project Blackjack, an initiative to demonstrate the value of a proliferated low earth orbit constellation that takes advantage of off-the-shelf commercial satellite technologies for military uses. According to DARPA, Pit Boss will be able to take data collected by the satellites, process it on orbit and then disseminate that information to users or platforms on Earth without human input.

Pit Boss will be able to facilitate a number of functions, including augmenting position, navigation and timing capabilities, space-to-surface communications, and deliver persistent targeting and tracking data.

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By Nathan Strout

DARPA selected three teams, led by BAE Systems, SEAKR and Scientific Systems Company, to develop Pit Boss solutions. SEAKR’s team included Microsoft, Applied Technology Associates, Advanced Solutions Inc, Kythera Space Solutions and NKryptPhase.

SEAKR said ithas received a Phase I Option II contract to continue its work on Pit Boss as the sole prime.

“The award validates SEAKR’s current program success in seeking on-orbit demonstration of state of the art processing capability incorporating autonomous operations, artificial intelligence, machine learning techniques, and bridged terrestrial and on-orbit technologies,” the company said in a statement.

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