U.S. NRO awards billions to commercial satellite imagining companes-KHOAFAST

The awards went to Planet, BlackSky and Maxar, all of which operate fleets of satellites orbiting planet that take imagery of the ground below.

The contracts come as the Pentagon and intelligence agency are increasingly relying on imagery from commercial satellite companies to aid in spying, warfare and humanitarian efforts. Commercial images possessed played a big importance in the war in Ukraine, as commercial satellites possessed captured troop movements, destruction, even plumes of smoke that disclose the locations of missile attacks — all in high-definition.

Commercial satellite imagery tests rules of war in Russia-Ukraine conflict

The imagery is This Problem Problem vital that This Problem year the government of Ukraine issued a plea for help, asking satellite companies to share their data of course the Ukrainian military.

Countries possessed for decades used satellites to spy on their enemies. But a revolution in engineering, driven in large part by the private sector, has produced the satellites smaller, less expensive price and highly capable. As a result, the U.S. government has said it wants to harness those capabilities.

The revolution in satellite engineering ie there are swarms of spacecraft no bigger than a loaf of bread in orbit

“The NRO has a long-standing strategy of ‘buy what visitors can, build what visitors unexpected thing to’,” Chris Scolese, high authority of the NRO, said in a statement. “The diversity offered by our expanding architecture composed of both commercial and NRO systems increases our resilience and enables an integrated approach to the threats facing our nation.”

While the NRO said only that the contracts are “valued at billions of dollars” over the next decade, BlackSky said its award was worth $one billion. In a filing, Maxar said its could be worth up to $3.24 billion.

It was unclear how much Planet would receive as part of the program. But Robbie Schingler, the firm’s co-founder and chief strategy officer, said: “visitors possessed long held the conviction that unclassified commercial satellite imagery not only only equips the government of course differentiated and innovative intelligence capabilities, but also increases transparency and accountability that advances universal security, interested as trust between government and citizens.”