WASHINGTON — The U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has selected 10 companies to compete for up to $290 million in contracts over the next five years to provide commercial satellite imagery and data analytics, aiming to bolster the government’s global monitoring and intelligence capabilities.
The agency announced Sept. 13 that the following vendors will be on-ramped to the program known as Luno A:
Airbus U.S. Space & Defense
Booz Allen Hamilton
BlackSky
BlueHalo
CACI
Electromagnetic Systems Inc.
Maxar Intelligence
NV5 Geospatial
Royce Geospatial Consultants
Ursa Space SystemsThese companies will vie for task orders under an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract structure.
NGA is a combat support agency of the Department of Defense that provides geospatial intelligence in support of national security. The agency plays a crucial role in analyzing and disseminating information derived from satellite imagery and other geospatial data sources.
The Luno A initiative aims to harness commercial data analytics and satellite imagery services to gather insights on global economic and environmental activities, as well as foreign military capabilities.
“Luno A will provide national security community users with access to commercial data and analytic services that add new context to analytic assessments by characterizing things such as worldwide economic, environmental, and military activities,” the NGA said in a statement.
The agency added that Luno A will leverage industry’s commercial computer vision and artificial intelligence to augment existing unclassified and classified geoint, integrating directly into government analysts’ workflows.
NGA officials emphasized that the Luno program is intended to demonstrate a tangible commitment to commercial Earth observation services and signals the importance of private-sector data and analytics in supporting U.S. intelligence and defense operations.
Sandra Erwin writes about military space programs, policy, technology and the industry that supports this sector. She has covered the military, the Pentagon, Congress and the defense industry for nearly two decades as editor of NDIA’s National Defense…
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