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Advanced / Transformational Technology

DARPA Makes Awards Under DRIFT Program For Space-Based Radar Collection, Algorithm Development

By Cal Biesecker

Monday, May 22nd, 2023

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DARPA Makes Awards Under DRIFT Program For Space-Based Radar Collection, Algorithm Development

Image: Umbra

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded four contracts aimed at flying synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites in formation to demonstrate novel imagery collection techniques and enable the development of new algorithms to process the radar data from multiple satellites. The awards to Umbra, Terran Orbital’s [LLAP] PredaSAR unit, Northrop Grumman [NOC] and Jacobs [J] were made in late 2022 and early 2023 under the Distributed Radar Image Formation Technology (DRIFT) program, which DARPA says is a key…

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