Todd Master, Umbra's chief operating officer and a former DARPA official, told Breaking Defense on May 22 that DRIFT "is a legitimately great example of how government can actually advance capability using commercial investments instead of just saying 'leverage commercial' over and over."
“Since the 2019 award of an integration study contract for commercial RF, we’ve seen increasing demand for this data source from across the user community,” said Chris Scolese, director of the NRO.
Why edge and endpoint security can’t be an afterthought.
The markup also calls for a comprehensive report on how DoD plans to leverage ISR data from commercial radio frequency (RF) satellites, noting that lawmakers have been "encouraged" by the successful use of RF geolocation in exercises, including by European Command.
Payam Banazadeh, CEO of Capella Space, told Breaking Defense that the Ukraine war has been a "critical place for the industry to show itself," but NRO says it isn't accelerating the SAR acquisition process.
Later in the contracting process, NRO potentially will "have the wherewithal to purchase ad hoc imagery, data products and the like," said Pete Muend, director of the spy agency's Commercial Systems Program Office.