‘Overwatch’ from space, cyber ops foundational to Maduro mission
Gen. Dan Caine, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, on Jan. 3 gave a shout-out to the roles played by US Space Command and US Cyber Command in Operation Absolute Resolve.
Five stories that surprised the space world: 2025 review
'Unsettled' is a polite word for 2025 in the space domain.
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Meeting Zero Trust goals while maintaining information dominance
Balancing security and access to data are critical to providing users with trustworthy, reliable data for real-time decisions.
Startup Enabled Intelligence nabs NGA’s $708 million AI training contract
Under the Sequoia program, the company will provide data labeling to allow artificial intelligence and machine learning systems to discriminate among objects.
What’s in a name: Goodbye Maxar, hello Vantor and Lanteris
Both of the newly named companies are focusing heavily on the national security market for space-related capabilities.
‘No human hands’: NGA circulates AI-generated intel, director says
NGA puts a "template" on the products that "literally acknowledges … what you are looking at has not been touched by human hands,” said Director Frank Whitworth. “It's important [for] combat commanders and the Secretary and the President that they have that knowledge.”
NGA hopes to award up to 10 Luno commercial analytics task orders this year
NGA's goal is to get through the bulk of the tasking under the $500 million Luno programs by early next year, NGA Director of Commercial Operations Devin Brande told Breaking Defense.
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Streamcaster Nexus: Empowering the connected soldier at the tactical edge
On today’s battlefield, mobility isn’t optional - it’s mission-critical.
AI ‘unchained’: NGA’s Maven tool ‘significantly’ decreasing time to targeting, agency chief says
"NGA Maven is now available to all services and all combatant commands. There are 20,000 active users through more than 35 service and combat and command tools across three security domains," said NGA Director Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth.
NGA, Space Force ink accord on responsibilities for buying commercial ISR
Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman stressed that the commercial imagery the Space Force gathers will not be used directly for targeting, rather to allow commanders to rapidly understand evolving situations.
NGA field testing new processor to speed imagery to US regional commands
"COCOMs reported after these tests that J-REN and SlimGIMS not only met the capability gap, but also reduced the time to create a collection request from an hour to 5 minutes," an NGA spokesperson told Breaking Defense.
EXCLUSIVE: NGA awards new Luno A task order for commercial imagery analysis
NGA Director Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth confirmed that the agency and the Space Force are working on a memorandum of agreement that will set "procedures" to ensure that they don't duplicate commercial imagery products.
Military & government leaders: Share your perspective
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‘Hell of a body blow:’ Ukraine shift may stir market headwinds for US SAR-sat operators
"Going back to pre-Ukraine supplemental procurement levels would see the USG buying only a small fraction of the US commercial SAR capacity available; hardly enough to support combat operations or sustain a healthy US industrial base," said David Gauthier.
NGA suspends Ukraine’s access to commercial satellite imagery
However, several industry sources said that their companies have not been blocked by NRO from taking pictures over Ukraine.
For the Space Force, terrestrial turf wars and rising budgets await: 2025 preview
Other than that, for a number of reasons, including the transition to a new administration, our crystal ball for the Space Force in 2025 is pretty darn cloudy.
Peeking behind the veil: 5 revelatory space stories from 2024
This year saw evidence that a shift toward more openness about US national security space activities is coming whether those deep in the "black world" are ready or not.