Weekly GEOINT Community News

NGA Announces Five Winners in Phase 2 of MagQuest; Maxar to Develop Cloud-Based GEOINT Architecture for U.S. Air Force; Orbital Insight Awarded U.S. Air Force SBIR Contract; More

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NGA Announces Five Winners in Phase 2 of MagQuest

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) awarded five organizations in the second phase of MagQuest, a global competition to advance the way Earth’s magnetic field is measured. Phase 2 awarded a total of $1 million in cash prizes to:

  • Compact Spaceborne Magnetic Observatory (COSMO) CubeSat from the University of Colorado Boulder
  • CubeSat-powered Geomagnetic Data Collection from Spire Global
  • Global Acquisition of Magnetic Measurements at Altitude (GAMMA) from Stellar Solutions
  • Small Integrated Geomagnetic Array (SIGMA) from Iota Technology
  • Terrestrial and Seafloor Automated Magnetic Observatories from the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium

Maxar to Develop Cloud-Based GEOINT Architecture for U.S. Air Force

Maxar Technologies announced it has been awarded a $14.2 million contract to develop Red Wing, an automated, cloud-based GEOINT analysis architecture for the Air Force Research Laboratory. Red Wing will enable analysts to focus on addressing some of the most challenging intelligence problems by automating time-consuming workflows. Red Wing will also enhance and optimize the production of actionable insights from raw information through advanced exploitation and visualization services and edge node processing.

 Orbital Insight Awarded Air Force SBIR Contract

Orbital Insight was awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase-2 contract by the U.S. Air Force technology accelerator program, AFWERX, to build custom AI algorithms and monitor objects of interest that support the Air Force mission. Orbital Insight will provide GEOINT collection and analysis through multi-modal data sources including optical, SAR, and aerial imagery at scale.

Northrop Grumman Receives Air Force PNT Contract

Northrop Grumman was awarded a $49 million contract by the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center for technology maturation and risk reduction in support of next-generation navigation systems. Under this contract, Northrop Grumman will provide preliminary hardware and software architecture design for the Embedded Global Positioning System (GPS)/Inertial Navigation System (INS)-Modernization, or EGI-M, technology.

Raytheon Completes Full GPS OCX Design & Development

Raytheon’s GPS Next-Generation Operational Control System (GPS OCX) has completed full software and hardware development and entered the system integration and test phase. The milestone keeps GPS OCX, the enhanced ground control segment of the U.S. Air Force GPS III program, on track to meet its June 2021 contractual delivery deadline.

Air Force Extends Lockheed’s SBIR Support

Lockheed Martin will continue to provide logistics support for the U.S. Air Force’s space-based infrared system (SBIR) under a one-year, $163.9M contract modification. SBIRS is equipped with overhead sensors that work to collect data for intelligence, situational awareness, and missile warning missions.

Hawkeye Systems Acquires Radiant Images

Hawkeye Systems acquired Radiant Images, which will deepen Hawkeye’s investment in providing AI and video solutions as well as enable the company to expand into new verticals. The company will leverage Radiant Images’ digital innovations, virtual reality, and augmented reality to enhance customer experience.

QinetiQ Increases U.S. Operations with Acquisition of MTEQ

QinetiQ entered into an agreement to acquire Manufacturing Techniques Inc. (MTEQ) for $105M, more than doubling the size of its U.S. operations. MTEQ is known for disruptive and agile innovation across the full cycle of sensor solutions development and use, including design, development, integration, low-volume production, deployment, and analytics.

Peer Intel

AllSource Analysis announced the opening of a new office in Belgium to provide customers closer expertise and more localized service. The new office is located in Brussels and will be led by Jonathan Debilde and Sim Tack. Both joined the AllSource team to provide business development, sales, and analytic operations capabilities in Europe.

HawkEye360 announced Robert Rainhart has been promoted to chief operating officer. Rainhart previously served as executive vice president of engineering, where he led development of the first satellites and products from concept to capabilities.

Northrop Grumman appointed Phyllis Schneck vice president and chief information security officer, effective Oct. 14. In this role, Schneck will oversee cybersecurity strategy and policies and will be responsible the security of the company’s products, services, and infrastructures.

Photo Credit: Raytheon 

Weekly GEOINT Community News

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Weekly GEOINT Community News

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Weekly GEOINT Community News

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