Startup Diffraqtion Advances Surveillance Technology With $1.5M Grant
The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is funding startup Diffraqtion to develop a first-of-its-kind quantum camera capable of providing near-real time imagery at up to 20 times that enabled by current optical surveillance cameras. The two-year, $1.5 million grant began in April and will end in 2027, with demonstrations of the camera on ground-based telescopes owned by the Air Force Research Laboratory and the University of California Observatories. Diffraqtion is working with the Space Force’s Space Domain Awareness Tools, Applications and Processing Lab to determine the best use cases for the technology. The company hopes to launch its first space domain awareness satellite in 2028, with a second satellite planned for launch in 2029. This development was first reported by Breaking Defense.