Intelligence Community Archives - Defense Daily

NRO Launches 13th Proliferated Architecture Mission

Cal Biesecker — Tue, 12 May 2026 14:19:09 +0000

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) on Monday night launched its 13th proliferated architecture mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex-4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base, […]

NRO Created GPU-Based Testing Environment To Validate AI Models, Director Says

Cal Biesecker — Mon, 11 May 2026 20:43:26 +0000

To test and verify the artificial intelligence-based models that the agency is increasingly using as it applies the technology to its workflows, on-orbit checkout, satellite tasking and data fusion, the […]

NGA Director Focused On AI Support for Mission, Transformation, And Workforce

Cal Biesecker — Wed, 06 May 2026 21:14:13 +0000

AURORA, Colo.—To ensure the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is postured to meet rapidly evolving threat and warfighters’ needs, is resilient, and exploits emerging technologies, the agency’s new director on Wednesday […]

NGA’s New Rapid Capabilities Office Taking Risks, Not Seeking 100 Percent Solution

Cal Biesecker — Wed, 06 May 2026 13:07:19 +0000

AURORA, Colo.—The new Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) stood up last fall within the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is focused on quickly getting emerging technologies into the hands of operators and […]

Vast Majority Of Luno Contracts Use Artificial Intelligence, NGA’s Commercial Chief Says

Cal Biesecker — Tue, 05 May 2026 13:53:19 +0000

AURORA, Colo.—Most of the contracts the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is awarding for unclassified commercial analytics around economic monitoring and domain awareness are using artificial intelligence tools, and that will […]

NRO, NGA Create Cybersecurity Framework For Commercial Partners

Cal Biesecker — Tue, 05 May 2026 00:47:34 +0000

AURORA, Colo.—To gain greater trust about the commercial vendors they work with, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) have developed a three-tiered cybersecurity framework that allows […]

NRO Makes New Commercial Awards To EarthDaily, ICEYE And Pixxel

Cal Biesecker — Mon, 04 May 2026 21:19:20 +0000

AURORA, Colo.—The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has awarded new contracts for Earth sensing data to three companies under its Strategic Commercial Enhancements (SCE) effort, adding additional satellite companies in several […]

Vantor Nabs $70 Million NGA Award For GEOINT Portal Use

Cal Biesecker — Mon, 04 May 2026 14:51:35 +0000

Vantor on Monday said it has received a $70 million award from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) for the first option year of a program that gives the agency and […]

NGA Has Rapid Capabilities Office As A Front Door To Commercial Innovation

Cal Biesecker — Sun, 03 May 2026 22:51:19 +0000

AURORA, Colo.—To speed its use of an ever increasing amount of commercially-developed, cutting-edge technologies for geospatial intelligence and artificial intelligence, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) established a Rapid Capabilities Office […]

Vantor Introduces Two New Satellite Classes For High Resolution Imaging, Frequent Revisits

Cal Biesecker — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 10:01:59 +0000

Commercial satellite operator and spatial intelligence provider Vantor on Thursday introduced two new classes of electro-optical imaging satellites that packaged together offer its customers high-resolution imagery and frequent revisit rates […]

Vantor Nabs Small Luno B Award To Provide Government Agencies Imagery Of Space Objects

Cal Biesecker — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 12:59:25 +0000

Satellite imagery and analytics provider Vantor on Wednesday said it won a $2.3 million task order under the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s (NGA) Luno B program to supply the agency and […]

NGA Awards BlackSky Seven-Figure Order On Luno A Contract

Mark Holmes — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 21:03:41 +0000

BlackSky Technology [BKSY] has won a seven-figure renewal deal with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) under the agency’s Luno A Facility Monitoring Delivery Order. The decision to renew funding […]

HEO, SatVu and Sierra Nevada Tapped By NRO For Remote Sensing Awards

Cal Biesecker — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 22:05:29 +0000

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) on Tuesday said it has awarded contracts to HEO, SatVu and Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) to provide commercial satellite-based remote sensing capabilities, marking the first […]

NGA Awards Vantor $5 Million For Global Change Detection Under Luno B Contract

Cal Biesecker — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 12:07:56 +0000

Vantor on Thursday said it received a $5.3 million contract from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to provide automated analytics on real-time changes in Earth’s terrain, helping the agency with […]

Space GMTI Partially Moves To Procurement Funding Account

Frank Wolfe — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 22:05:16 +0000

The Space Force effort to develop and field Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI) satellites has partially moved to procurement. The Space Force requested more than $1 billion in research and […]

Parsons Acquires Altamira For $375 Million, Strengthening Defense And Intelligence Work

Cal Biesecker — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 13:18:50 +0000

Parsons [PSN] on Thursday said it has acquired Altamira Technologies in a deal valued at up to $375 million, complementing its existing capabilities in data analytics, signals intelligence, cyber, missile […]

Adkins Becomes NRO’s Principal Deputy Director

Frank Wolfe — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 20:38:21 +0000

The White House appointed William Adkins as the principal deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) on Monday to replace Troy Meink who became Air Force Secretary last May. […]

CACI Makes Play To Bolster Space Capabilities With $2.6 Billion Bid For ARKA Group

Cal Biesecker — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 17:10:21 +0000

CACI International [CACI] on Monday said it has agreed to acquire ARKA Group for $2.6 billion in cash, a deal that would make it a major player in high-end imaging […]

NRO Extends Work For HawkEye 360, Capella, ICEYE And Umbra

Frank Wolfe — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 22:00:36 +0000

Herndon, Va.’s HawkEye 360 said on Wednesday that it has received a follow-on 23 months of National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) funding for work with the agency’s Commercial Systems Program Office […]

Space GMTI Evolution Of U.S. Satellite Proliferation, NRO Official Says

Frank Wolfe — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 20:15:15 +0000

The number of U.S. satellites in a proliferated, low Earth orbit, ground moving target indication (GMTI) constellation will hinge on revisit rates required to view targets of interest, a National […]

VTG Acquires Software Engineering Firm Miklos Systems

Cal Biesecker — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 21:55:36 +0000

VTG on Tuesday said it had acquired Miklos Systems, Inc. (MSI), in a deal that strengthens its digital transformation capabilities with the intelligence community. Terms of the transaction were not […]

USAF Sustainment Of Intel Support Program For U-2 To Stretch Through Next October

Frank Wolfe — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 21:13:53 +0000

While the Air Force has planned to retire the Lockheed Martin [LMT] U-2 Dragon Lady surveillance plane next year, a number of legislators have opposed that plan, and former Air […]

BlackSky Says Third Gen-3 Satellite Produced Images Less Than 24 Hours After Launch

Frank Wolfe — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 18:11:57 +0000

BlackSky Technology Inc. [BKSY] said on Tuesday that its third Gen-3 satellite began producing images less than 24 hours after its launch from New Zealand on Nov. 20 on Rocket […]

Sole Source Contract Advised by AFLCMC For Support Of NWS’ Archer

Frank Wolfe — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 20:16:49 +0000

The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s (AFLCMC) Electronic Systems Directorate at Hanscom AFB, Mass., has advised the provision of a five-year, more than $29 million sole source contract to […]

Planet Nabs $13 Million Award Under NGA’s Luno B Award For Data Analytics

Cal Biesecker — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 18:05:37 +0000

Planet Labs [PL] on Thursday said it has received its first award under the Luno B contract, a $12.8 million order to provide data analytics for maritime domain awareness. The […]

SpaceX to Launch Five USSF/NRO Missions in FY 2026, ULA Two

Frank Wolfe — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 19:56:37 +0000

Under the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, SpaceX is to launch five NSSL Phase 3, Lane 2 missions through September 2026 for the U.S. Space Force (USSF) and National […]

Leidos Receives Sea Dart Contract from ‘Classified Customer,’ Reports Increase in 2nd Quarter Earnings

Frank Wolfe — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 16:49:59 +0000

Leidos [LDOS] has received a contract from a “classified customer” for 12 Sea Dart unmanned underwater vessels “to augment their arsenals,” Leidos CEO Tom Bell said in the opening segment […]

GMTI Satellites to Launch in Next Year, Preceding AMTI for Space Force, Service Says

Frank Wolfe — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 18:26:15 +0000

The U.S. Space Force plans to launch ground moving target indicator (GMTI) satellites in the next year for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and then expand GMTI to other combatant commands, but, […]

NGA, Army Unit Test AI-Based System For Locating And Identifying Objects In The Field

Cal Biesecker — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 20:59:49 +0000

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the Army’s 18th Airborne Corps in May successfully tested a prototype tool that uses imagery data from small drones and can train artificial intelligence […]

Ursa Space, NV5 Nab First Luno B Awards By NGA

Cal Biesecker — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 17:53:44 +0000

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) last Wednesday announced its first awards under its Luno B commercial analytics services contract with orders to Ursa Space Systems and NV5 Geospatial. Under a […]

DTRA Scrutinized Fordow for More Than 16 Years Before June 21 B-2 Strikes

Frank Wolfe — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 14:46:18 +0000

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), which has expertise in the destruction of hard and deeply buried targets, has studied Iran’s Fordow nuclear site since at least June 2008, Chairman […]

Maxar Releases Geospatial Monitoring Solution For Predictive Intelligence

Cal Biesecker — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 17:26:31 +0000

Maxar Intelligence on Wednesday announced a new solution suite that applies artificial intelligence-enabled analytics to geospatial imagery for persistent global monitoring of fixed sites and vessels on the open sea […]

SAIC Unseats KBR as Air Force TENCAP HOPE Contractor

Frank Wolfe — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 17:08:46 +0000

Science Applications International Corp. [SAIC] has unseated KBR [KBR] as the contractor for the Air Force Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities Hyper-Innovative Operational Prototype Engineering (AF TENCAP HOPE) program run […]

NGA Awards BlackSky Potential $24 Million Luno A Task Order For AI-Based Analytics

Cal Biesecker — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 15:30:31 +0000

BlackSky Technology [BKSY] has received a potential $24-plus million task order to provide the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) with object detection monitoring of military and economic facilities worldwide. The initial […]

DIA’s New Military Intelligence Platform Nearing Full Operational Capability

Cal Biesecker — Thu, 29 May 2025 18:37:45 +0000

The Defense Intelligence Agency’s successor to its current military intelligence system continues to progress and is on track to reach full operational capability (FOC) in early 2026, the agency’ lead […]

Commercial Imagery May See $300 Million-$400 Million Cut in NRO Budget

Frank Wolfe — Wed, 28 May 2025 21:36:41 +0000

Congress is awaiting the arrival of a fiscal 2026 National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) budget request that may slice $300 million to $400 million for commercial imagery out of a $1 […]

Amid Soaring Demand, Palantir Gets $795 Million Boost For Maven Smart System

Cal Biesecker — Thu, 22 May 2025 17:11:06 +0000

The Defense Department on Tuesday awarded Palantir Technologies [PLTR] a $795 million modification to the company’s existing contract to provide more software licenses for a battlespace awareness software platform increasingly […]

Ursa Space Nabs NGA Luno A Task Order; Univ. of Illinois Gets High-Performance Compute Award

Cal Biesecker — Wed, 21 May 2025 21:16:11 +0000

ST. LOUIS—Ursa Space Systems this week received a $13.8 million task order for the Global Oil Awareness Tracker (GOAT) under a commercial data analytics contract focused on facility monitoring and […]

NGA, Space Force Agree On Roles And Responsibilities For TacSRT

Cal Biesecker — Wed, 21 May 2025 19:48:40 +0000

ST. LOUIS—The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the U.S. Space Force on Wednesday signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) clarifying their respective roles and responsibilities in carrying out tactical surveillance, […]

Maven Makes Its Way Into U.S. Transportation Command

Cal Biesecker — Wed, 21 May 2025 16:57:58 +0000

ST. LOUIS—U.S. Transportation Command recently began using an artificial intelligence platform to improve its operational awareness in the areas it provides global logistics and transportation services, the command’s intelligence chief […]

NGA Developing New Project Around Non-Standard Mission Planning

Cal Biesecker — Wed, 21 May 2025 08:45:09 +0000

ST. LOUIS—To better exploit data collected from uncrewed systems, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has initiated a new project focused on commercial analytics to better serve its mission partners, an […]

NGA Close To Operational Use Of New GEOINT Tasking Tool For Combatant Commands

Cal Biesecker — Tue, 20 May 2025 21:11:43 +0000

ST. LOUIS—A new version of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s (NGA) primary tool for ordering imagery should be ready for operational use later this year, an agency official said. The tailored […]

Intelligence Community-Focused Vibrint Acquires Ampsight Adding New Customers

Cal Biesecker — Mon, 19 May 2025 17:33:49 +0000

ST. LOUIS—Vibrint on Monday said it has acquired Ampsight, a small company with expertise in cloud, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence that adds to its customer base in the intelligence community, […]

Key Geospatial Intel Lesson Of Ukraine War Is Closing Kill Chain, NATO Official Says

Cal Biesecker — Mon, 19 May 2025 17:31:09 +0000

ST. LOUIS—The use of geospatial intelligence to accelerate decision making from the time a potential target has been detected until an effect is put against it has been an important […]

NGA Plans Upcoming Commercial Analytics Awards In Several Areas

Cal Biesecker — Mon, 19 May 2025 08:36:21 +0000

ST. LOUIS—The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has awarded initial task orders under its new commercial analytics service programs and has more to come in the next few weeks and months, […]

BlackSky Looks to Make Gen-3 Widely Available This Year

Frank Wolfe — Tue, 13 May 2025 20:02:38 +0000

While BlackSky Technology [BKSY] said that it is to make its Generation-3 Earth imaging satellites widely available this year, the company is offering “early access” to a select group of “multiple […]

VTG Acquires Three Companies To Expand Intelligence Community Footprint

Cal Biesecker — Tue, 13 May 2025 14:26:03 +0000

VTG on Tuesday said it has completed three more acquisitions that enhance its capabilities, solutions offerings, and footprint with the intelligence community. Terms of the deals for Byte Systems, LLC, […]

Rheinmetall and ICEYE to Create Satellite Production Joint Venture in Germany

Frank Wolfe — Thu, 08 May 2025 15:33:34 +0000

Germany’s Rheinmetall AG and Finland’s ICEYE said that they signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday to create the Rheinmetall ICEYE Space Solutions joint venture–60 percent owned by Rheinmetall and […]

VTG Acquires Cyber And Signals Intelligence Firm Triaplex

Cal Biesecker — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 12:40:44 +0000

VTG on Wednesday said it has acquired Triaplex, Inc. in a deal that adds to its cyber and signals intelligence capabilities and expands its intelligence community customer base. Terms of […]

NRO Launches 10th Proliferated Architecture Mission

Frank Wolfe — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 20:03:07 +0000

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and U.S. Space Force on Sunday launched the agency’s 10th proliferated architecture mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., […]