Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites can “see” through clouds and at night. (Capella Space)

WASHINGTON: The National Reconnaissance Office isn’t yet sure about when a formal program to acquire imagery from commercial providers of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites might launch, or exactly what the requirements will be, according to Pete Muend, whose office leads the effort.

Answering those questions is the goal of the spy agency’s just-announced study contracts under its October Broad Agency Announcement, he said.

Muend, director of NRO’s Commercial Systems Program Office, told reporters on Wednesday that the NRO has made awards to five SAR-sat companies, two of which have corporate headquarters outside the United States. They are: multinational firm Airbus’s US arm; California startup Capella Space; Finnish firm ICEYE’s US branch; Florida startup PredaSAR; and California-based Umbra.

“The contracts have a six month period of performance with options to extend up to 30 months. So they’re very flexible and we do have the contract wherewithal to go beyond that as necessary,” Muend said. But he would not be drawn on the exact value of the contracts.

What he did say is that NRO has its eyes on eventually establishing a program of record for acquiring commercial SAR satellite data, in a similar fashion to the longstanding program for buying electro-optical imagery. SAR satellites are particularly of interest to military operators — the Army has been exploring directly buying SAR images from commercial providers — as they can “see” through clouds, fog and heavy rainfall, unlike EO cameras.

“As we validate capabilities, users will have access to commercial radar products for mission-use case assessments, and operational use as well,” Muend said. This will all help to inform ongoing formal requirements development, led by the GEOINT functional manager, which could eventually lead to operational contracts and a program of record.”

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is the GEOINT functional manager, meaning that it is responsible for both developing requirements for NRO — and other agencies which provide data from non-space sensors — to fulfill, and disseminating products (such as 3D maps, etc.) to users across the Intelligence Community and Defense Department.

It will take a “much longer process” for NRO to help NGA to “start down the path towards formalizing validated requirements and really mature our understanding and use of commercial SAR as part of a larger hybrid architecture consisting of both large and smaller satellites, national satellites and commercial satellites,” Muend said.

He explained that the contracting process was set up with “low barriers to entry” to allow new providers a chance to participate, with the idea that their offerings can scale up over time. (Indeed, one of the winners, PredaSAR, has yet to even launch a satellite.)

For the moment, the study contracts are “focused on modeling and simulation data and a variety of specific ConOps [concepts of operation] that we’re looking for,” he explained. “Frankly, it’ll be a collaborative effort as well,” with NRO learning “right alongside” the contractors as they move through the study contracts.

“In particular, as we progress to the later stages of the acquisition, that’s when we start getting on-orbit data to validate the modeling and simulation assertions, and also potentially have the wherewithal to purchase ad hoc imagery, data products and the like,” Muend said. “That could happen as soon as six months into the contract. It could happen, frankly, sooner if we choose to exercise that sooner and if it’s appropriate.”