BAE Systems wins $16 million DARPA award to advance autonomous satellite tasking

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded BAE Systems a $16 million contract to continue work on software that aims to keep “constant custody” of large numbers of ground targets by automatically retasking sensors across government and commercial satellite constellations.

The award is for Phase 2 of DARPA’s Oversight program and follows a $7 million Phase 1 contract issued in 2023 to BAE’s FAST Labs research unit.

Oversight is a software-focused effort to coordinate and assign work across proliferated space systems, a growing mix of military and commercial spacecraft that carry radar, optical and radio-frequency sensors. The goal is to automate what is typically a manual and resource-limited process: deciding which satellite should observe which target, and when.

DARPA says Oversight is intended to provide “autonomous constant custody” of as many as 1,000 targets by managing available satellite hardware resources in both peacetime and wartime scenarios. The problem has gained importance as the Pentagon seeks to track mobile and elusive targets in contested environments, where satellite time, bandwidth and sensor availability are constrained.

In practice, DARPA envisions a system that can detect an unexpected signal, share that information across a network and reprioritize assets without waiting for human planners. For example, if a satellite identifies a vessel transmitting inside a controlled ocean region, onboard software would update other spacecraft and move that vessel higher on the custody list.

BAE said on Dec. 10 that it had completed Phase 1, integrating its software into a modeling and simulation environment “to demonstrate a custody mission on representative satellite and sensor models.” In Phase 2, the company plans to mature its algorithms and test them against larger constellations, more complex situations and higher-fidelity simulations.

“Through this program, we will help make the space domain more tactically relevant for warfighters,” Ben Cooper, a senior principal scientist at FAST Labs, said in a statement.

Work will be performed at BAE facilities in Burlington, Massachusetts, and Merrimack, New Hampshire, with support from subcontractor AIMdyn.

DARPA is pursuing the capability as the number of orbiting sensors grows rapidly. Proliferated constellations can offer more timely coverage, but they also increase the complexity of scheduling and data flow. Oversight aims to shift that burden to autonomous software so operators can focus on analysis rather than assigning each collection task.