WASHINGTON — The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has extended its contracts for Earth observation data with four firms as the spy satellite agency readies a new commercial acquisition approach that would provide longer-term funding.

“Recently, and based on continuing mission requirements and proven capabilities, CSPO [NRO’s Commercial Systems Program Office] awarded several SCE [Strategic Commercial Enhancement] contract extensions. A 23-month extension to HawkEye 360’s Commercial Radio Frequency Capabilities contract, and 15.5 month extensions to Capella Space, ICEYE US and Umbra for their Commercial Radar Capabilities contracts,” an agency spokesperson told Breaking Defense.

As NRO’s budget is classified, the spokesperson did not provide the value of the contract extensions.

Since 2022, the NRO has been using small-dollar, short-term contracts under the SCE Broad Area Announcement program to buy different types of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data from commercial firms — granting awards for each of four data types. The agency currently has 11 commercial companies under contract, the spokesperson said:

  • Albedo, Hydrosat, Muon Space, and Turion for Electro-Optical (EO);
  • Orbital Sidekick and Planet for Hyperspectral Imaging;
  • Capella Space, ICEYE US, Umbra for Radar; and
  • HawkEye 360, Spire Global, Umbra for Radio Frequency (RF).

Hawkeye was one of six firms providing RF geolocation services awarded funds under NRO’s SCE Broad Area Announcement contract vehicle in 2022. The latest contract extension will focus on data needed by US European Command, the company said in a Dec. 3 announcement.

Umbra, ICEYE US (the American arm of the Finnish firm) and Capella received their first SCE contracts for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data in January 2022, along with the US arm of European aerospace behemoth Airbus and Florida start-up PredaSAR. Of those five, the first three each received a contract extension from NRO last December. Their latest extension runs through Jan. 17, 2027, the NRO spokesperson said.

However, NRO is now moving to switch up how it acquires commercial data to augment what is gleaned from its own classified satellites, Deputy Director Maj. Gen. Christopher Povak said Wednesday.

“The next round of our strategic commercial enhancements contracts will be through a commercial solutions opening, or CSO, which is a new contract mechanism that has a revolving five-year window and allows industry partners to put in bids for proposal. … And actually we set this up to be not just one phenomenology, but multiple: EO, radar, RF, hyperspectral and LIDAR.”

Povak explained that under the CSO companies can simply send in unsolicited bids anytime during that five year window and have them considered.

The NRO spokesperson explained that a request for proposals for the CSO program went out in July and that agency officials now are reviewing the responses, but did not give an expected date for the first awards.

The move was no doubt welcomed by commercial remote sensing providers, which have been lobbying for several years for NRO to craft a more formal contracting arrangement that would accommodate longer-term contracts.