DARPA is the central research and development organization for the Department of Defense (DoD). It manages and directs selected basic and applied research and development projects for DoD, and pursues research and technology where risk and payoff are both very high and where success may provide dramatic advances for traditional military roles and missions.
The objective of the F6 program is to demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of a satellite architecture in which traditional "monolithic" spacecraft are replaced by clusters of wirelessly-interconnected spacecraft modules.
"F6 has the potential to be a game-changing event in the history of military space systems in the same way that the internet revolutionized data communications," stated Mr. Gregg Burgess, Orbital's Vice President for National Security Systems in the Advanced Programs Group. "DARPA and Orbital have had a long and productive partnership leading to major innovations such as the Pegasus launch vehicle and numerous advanced small satellites. System F6 could transform today's military space architecture to create a truly networked system of systems in space."