Raytheon won a $1.5 million contract from DARPA for phase one of the agency’s Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements, or SeeMe, program, announced the company. Under SeeMe, DARPA envisions a constellation of low-cost, small-sized imagery satellites that could be readily placed in orbit to provide military personnel in the battlespace with direct, on-demand imagery information to enhance their situational awareness, according to the company’s Dec. 13 release. “Leveraging our state-of-the-art missile assembly lines, we can mass produce these small, lightweight satellites quickly and affordably,” said Tom Bussing, Raytheon Missile Systems’ vice president of advanced missile systems. For phase one, the company will use the next nine months to complete the satellite’s design. Under the subsequent second phase, Raytheon said it would build six satellites for ground testing. Raytheon is teamed with Sierra Nevada, the University of Arizona, and SRI International for this work. (See also DARPA’s SeeMe webpage.)
Recent Russian and Chinese tests of space weapons are a "natural consequence of military behaviors," and the U.S. must now "mitigate this threat," the Space Force's operations chief said. “When you are behind, you look for ways to seek vulnerabilities of your adversary and your competitor so that you can…