The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants small companies to help it find new ways to project U.S. military power in space.

DARPA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) tasked with researching and developing new technologies, issued a statement outlining how it wants private companies outside of the typical base of legacy defense contractors to submit ideas related to "space superiority." The U.S. Air Force defines space superiority as "the degree of control in space of one force over any others that permits the conduct of its operations at a given time and place without prohibitive interference from terrestrial or space-based threats." 

In other words, DARPA wants ideas for new space-based weaponry that can defend U.S. satellites from being damaged or disrupted by adversary systems, as well as systems that can carry out their own attacks.