While US spending on national security space continues to dwarf that of the rest of world, non-US military space spending has jumped a whopping 76.5 percent over the last five years.
The Sequoia ID/IQ contract will support the Maven Program, "which applies AI capabilities to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sensors and platforms, primarily through computer vision," the NGA announcement said.
Modeling and simulation get an AI upgrade for more realistic training and improved autonomous platforms.
When completed, the six-satellite WorldView Legion constellation will "be able to revisit certain areas of the world up to 15 times a day," Susanne Hake, general manager of Maxar Intelligence, told Breaking Defense.
"In a small military with limited resources and a lot of tasks, we have to prioritize. I think we need to look for sustainable solutions as cost effective solutions," said Lt. Gen. Karel Rehka, chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces.
"Commercial analytics-as-a-service, or the purchase of analysis vice pixels, means that we can integrate commercial capabilities faster into our existing products and services (e.g., object detection)," an NGA spokesperson told Breaking Defense.
MARS is replacing the 1980s-era database, called the Military Intelligence Integrated Database, used by DIA for its primary mission of providing foundational military intelligence to warfighters and national security decision-makers.
CDAO’s Advana data analytics platform is ingesting data from about 500 DoD business systems.
While this may be the first CRADA's between the two Indian space startups and the Space Force, neither company is a stranger to the US space market ecosystem.
Under a new grant, the company will demonstrate to the Air Force's National Air and Space Intelligence Center its ability to take very high resolution images at night using a thermal infrared sensor.
"Sapphire has done yeoman's service for us. It is beyond end of life, but keeps chugging away like the Energizer Bunny. And, and every day that it has a hiccup, I go, 'Not today, not today,'" said Brig. Gen. Mike Adamson.
Michael Monteleone, director of the Army's assured PNT and space cross functional team, said that the service is interested in high altitude platforms as a capability for "bridging between an aerial layer and space."
The U.S. Army’s MAPS Gen II program of record for assured PNT provides an authoritative and reliable source of truth for combat vehicles in a highly contested battlespace.
The company has demonstrated the capability to do 'pattern of life' monitoring, staying over a 40 kilometer area for more than four days, said CEO Ryan Hartman.
NRO, NGA, CIA, DIA and NSA are the "standing members" of the new council, says its chairman David Gauthier of NGA.
NGA and NRO "have significantly overlapping Venn diagrams," one industry source said, and they are still trying to "sort that through." He added, "It's not a nice clean line."
Newly proposed licensing rules for commercial remote sensing will eliminate automatic DoD review rights for of a majority of applications.