Three high tech companies have won enormous electro-optical imaging contacts worth billions of dollars over the next several years, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) announced in a press release on Wednesday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th May, 2022) Three high tech companies have won enormous electro-optical imaging contacts worth billions of Dollars over the next several years, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) announced in a press release on Wednesday.
"The NRO today announced the results of its largest-ever commercial imagery contract effort, awarding Electro-Optical Commercial Layer (EOCL) contracts to BlackSky, Maxar, and Planet," the release said.
The contracts will be worth billions of dollars over the next decade and they mark "a historic expansion" of the NRO's acquisition of commercial imagery to meet increasing customer demands with greater capacity than ever before, the release said.
"EOCL includes a substantial increase in requirements for foundation data, intelligence points, and non-taskable data collection; shortwave infrared, nighttime, and non-earth imaging; and direct downlink to theater-based remote ground terminals - a vital capability for the military that has been successfully demonstrated in multiple exercises over the past year," the release said.
"The NRO has a long-standing strategy of 'buy what we can, build what we must'," NRO Director Chris Scolese added.
The diversity offered by a new expanding architecture comprised of both commercial and NRO systems increases the organization's resilience and enables an integrated approach to the threats facing the United States, according to the release.
