Capella, Iceye and Umbra win NRO radar

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, establish a direct pathway for users to order SAR collections, archive imagery, derived products and work to develop new capabilities to meet mission requirements. “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,” NRO said in an Aug. 5 news release. “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 capabilities. The latest contracts, managed by the NRO’s Commercial Systems Program Office (CSPO), will provide “all-weather, day and night imaging to support a wide range of national security and humanitarian missions,” according to the NRO news release. “This strategy is informed by lessons learned from the NRO’s successful Electro-Optical Commercial Layer and other commercial remote sensing programs, further promoting the rapid integration of the most innovative commercial data source.” “Commercial remote sensing is increasingly part of how the Intelligence Community augments some of its hardest collection challenges,” Iceye U.S. CEO Ann Stevens said in a statement. “Earning a place on the RCA program reflects the trust the NRO places in our technology and our team. We focused on delivering the reliability and responsiveness this mission requires, and on continuing to advance what commercial radar can contribute to national security.” “We’re honored by the trust the NRO has placed in Umbra to support U.S. intelligence missions,” Umbra CEO David Langan said in a statement. “Today’s announcement is an important new chapter in a partnership built on years of consistent delivery for the missions that CSPO supports. Our team is focused on solving the hardest remote sensing challenges in space, and we move at speed to turn new ideas and U.S. technology into better capabilities for national security.” The contract “reflects growing readiness to leverage commercial remote sensing alongside national systems — a step in maturing commercial radar for the U.S. government,” Iceye’s news release added. “Because Iceye U.S. SAR data is unclassified, collections can be shared across the defense, intelligence, civil, and allied and coalition partner community under existing sharing agreements, maximizing collaboration when it is needed most.” Under a related program, Strategic Commercial Enhancements Commercial Solutions Opening,the NRO announced contract awards in May to EarthDaily, Iceye and Pixxel to expand the agency’s “access to cutting-edge multi-phenomenology remote sensing capabilities, including” electro-optical, hyperspectral imaging and radio frequency to enhance the NRO’s intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance mission. Under a Strategic Commercial Enhancements contract in late 2024, the NRO announced plans to expand the integration of Umbra’s SAR capabilities with the U.S. government’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance framework. The NRO also tapped Umbra in 2024 to deliver radio frequency products to the validate on-orbit performance and assess the mission utility and integration of U.S. domestic commercial RF capabilities for the U.S. government.