Weekly GEOINT Community News

Several News Announcements from Planet; Kleos Space Establishes U.S. Subsidiary; BAE Systems to Provide OSINT Support to U.S. Army; More

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Several News Announcements from Planet

Planet made several recent announcements surrounding its inaugural Explore conference in San Francisco. Planet was awarded a contract by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)—the latest development in NRO’s strategy to embrace commercial imagery as a key element of its overhead imagery capabilities.

The company’s newly introduced partner program, Planet Orbit, will provide customers with a trusted ecosystem and unique dataset. Planet Orbit will enable partners to gain access to geospatial data not otherwise available in the commercial market, to create powerful solutions, and to differentiate their business.

Planet CEO Will Marshall made several announcements at Explore: He introduced new capabilities for Planet’s Next-Generation PlanetScope imagery, including the addition of more spectral bands to enable new applications and use cases.He also revealed Planet aims to make 50-cm SkySat imagery, its highest resolution yet, available to customers in the first half of 2020. Additionally, Planet’s Analytic Feeds are now generally available and allow customers to enhance their imagery products with road, building, or vessel detection feeds.

Kleos Space Establishes U.S. Subsidiary

Kleos Space established a subsidiary in the United States to offer maritime ISR data products to U.S. defense and national security programs. The subsidiary aims to secure a SBIR Phase 2 contract through technology accelerator Ithaca Solutions. Retired Air Commodore Peter Round, executive chairman of Kleos, will be interim CEO of the subsidiary until a U.S. citizen is hired to take the helm. Karyn Hayes-Ryan, a former executive at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and NRO, will serve as director of the newly incorporated entity.

BAE Systems to Provide OSINT Support to U.S. Army

The U.S. Army awarded BAE Systems a $437 million task order to provide open-source intelligence support for the Army and Army Intelligence & Security Command (INSCOM) approved partners. BAE Systems will deliver open-source capabilities from publicly available data as well as provide INSCOM with training, policy, and governance recommendations, assessments, and implementation of emerging capabilities.

Guidehouse Acquires Navigant Consulting

Guidehouse announced its acquisition of Navigant Consulting is now complete. The transaction was first announced Aug. 2 and received approval from shareholders Oct. 10. The combined organization will operate under the Guidehouse name and be led by Scott McIntyre, CEO of Guidehouse. The acquisition deepens the industry expertise Guidehouse delivers to its clients across both the commercial and government sectors. 

High-Resolution Radar Imaging Now Available from ICEYE

ICEYE announced its recently developed Spotlight imaging mode, which enables 1-meter radar imaging from the company’s satellite constellation, is now commercially available. 1-meter Spotlight radar imagery is particularly useful in detailed volume monitoring of stockpiles, vehicle count monitoring, property damage estimation, and oil transshipment monitoring.

Peer Intel

Octo Consulting hired Harold Poston as vice president of the company’s Department of Defense (DoD) accounts, where he will have immediate responsibility for DoD business.

Headline Image Courtesy of Planet

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