Systems & Technology Research

Systems & Technology Research, known as STR, builds advanced sensors, signal-processing software, artificial intelligence and command-and-control systems for military and intelligence customers. Its space work centres on extracting usable tracks from sensor data — the processing layer that determines whether a constellation can actually distinguish a moving aircraft from background clutter.

The company was founded in 2010, is headquartered in Woburn, Massachusetts, and employs several hundred people across multiple US locations.

In August 2026 the US Space Force awarded $615 million across three agreements — to Rocket Lab, STR and an undisclosed third party — under the second task order of the Space-Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator programme, which aims to field a persistent orbital surveillance network able to track aircraft, missiles and hypersonic threats by 2028, moving that sensing off vulnerable airborne platforms such as AWACS. DARPA has separately awarded STR a second-phase contract worth up to $80 million to adapt commercial space systems for national security missions.