Iceye Gen4 synthetic aperture radar satellite. Credit: Iceye
SAN FRANCISCO – The National Reconnaissance Office has awarded contracts to Capella Space, Iceye U.S. and Umbra to expand the U.S. government’s use of commercial synthetic aperture radar (SAR).
The contracts, awarded under NRO’s Commercial Radar Capabilities program, “represent a significant step in the NRO’s strategy to build a more resilient and responsive overhead architecture,” according to the NRO’s Aug. 5 news release. “By integrating commercial SAR capabilities with national systems, the NRO increases its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capacity and flexibility, ensuring timely and persistent global coverage. This approach allows the NRO to leverage the rapid innovation occurring in the commercial space sector to augment its cutting-edge space-based intelligence systems.”
The NRO awarded contracts in 2022 to radar imagery providers Airbus U.S., Capella Space, Iceye U.S., PredaSAR and Umbra to study the commercial data sources and ways to employ them alongside government sensors. Through modeling, simulation and on-orbit demonstrations, the NRO evaluated the commercial constellations, leading to the latest awards.
