With all of the talk of Facebook’s efforts to blanket the planet with drones that the company promises will provide global Wi-Fi accessibility, another technology leader, the US military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has also entered the drone Wi-Fi game.

Through DARPA’s new “Mobile Hotspots Program,” the agency has planned to retrofit a fleet of aging RQ-7 shadow drones that were once deployed for various surveillance missions by the US military in Iraq. The repurposed drones will now be used to help the military carry out operations in remote locations that lack Internet connectivity.

The hotspot program aims to provide a 1Gbps communications backbone to deployed units. In order to establish a secure connection from ground stations without requiring large antennas, each drone will be equipped with a lightweight, low-power pod, holding low-noise amplifiers, which DARPA claims can boost signals while minimizing background noise. The drones can apparently run for nine-hour shifts to provide continual coverage as needed.

“Missions in remote, forward operating locations often suffer from a lack of connectivity to tactical operation centers and access to valuable intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (IRS) data. The assets needed for long-range, high-bandwidth communications capabilities are often unavailable,” Dick Ridgway, DARPA program manager, said in a press statement. "DARPA’s mobile hotspots program aims to help overcome this challenge by developing a reliable, on-demand capability for establishing long-range, high-capacity reachback that is organic to tactical units."

“The Phase 1 field tests were very successful," Ridgway told Ars. "The pointing, acquisition, and tracking algorithms were very fast, with some showing millimeter-wave link alignment in just a few seconds." This, he noted, will "enable the formation of a high-capacity backhaul network between aerial and ground platforms."

While it's unlikely that the people living in military-occupied regions will be able to benefit from DARPA’s Wi-Fi services, such a project could have civilian applications in outdoor event settings, or perhaps in remote emergency situations where Internet connectivity could help rescue operators.