Weekly GEOINT Community News

CACI Offers $7.2B for CSRA; NGA Appoints New West Executive; SpaceX Wins Air Force Satellite Support Contract; LGS Innovations Awarded NOAA Contract; More

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CACI Offers $7.2B for CSRA

CACI offered to acquire CSRA for $7.2 billion in a bid to form a combined entity. CACI’s proposal comes a month after General Dynamics agreed to acquire CSRA for approximately $6.8 billion in cash and $2.8 billion in assumed net debt in a move to establish a combined government IT services provider.

General Dynamics said Sunday it has received all the needed regulatory clearances and has funds to close the deal in early April. General Dynamics noted its offer started March 5 and is slated to expire April 2CSRA confirmed it received an unsolicited offer from CACI and its board will consult its financial and legal advisers to consider and assess the second offer.

NGA Appoints New West Executive

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) announced the appointment of Brett Markham as the agency’s new west executive and deputy associate director for operations. Markham will play a major role in integrating all activities across the Next NGA West facility in St. Louis. Markham will oversee the NGA Operations Center, the Office of NGA Defense, the Office of Expeditionary Operations, and NGA leadership at the three National Reconnaissance Office Aerospace Data facilities.

SpaceX Wins U.S. Air Force Satellite Support Contract

SpaceX won a contract to produce a launch vehicle and provide support services such as mission integration and spaceflight readiness testing to a GPS III satellite for the U.S. Air Force. The contract has a potential value of $290.6 million over two years and was awarded as part of USAF’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program. The Air Force received two offers for the firm-fixed-price contract and may exercise options for two more GPS III launch mission services.

LGS Innovations Awarded NOAA Contract

LGS Innovations was awarded $8.5 million toward a potential five-year, $204 million contract to develop and maintain a radio frequency interference monitoring system for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The system will reduce the possibility of frequency interference from other carriers sharing the spectrum with NOAA’s satellites. LGS will provide real-time detection of interference events, classify the interference data, and provide notes to NOAA and other wireless carriers.

Orbital ATK to Build ISR Aircraft for Afghanistan, Landsat 9 for NASA

Orbital ATK was awarded an $86.4 million contract to manufacture AC-208 intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft for Afghanistan’s air force. The AC-208 is designed for counterinsurgency missions and is armed with guided rockets and/or AGM-114 Hellfire missile payloads. The arrangement is part of the U.S. Air Force’s “pseudo” foreign military sales contract.

Orbital also received approval to begin development on NASA’s Landsat 9 satellite. A comprehensive Critical Design Review confirmed the mission’s adherence to all technical and performance requirements. The spacecraft is planned for launch in late 2020, and will be operated by the U.S. Geological Survey once in orbit.

Raytheon and Palantir Win Spots on U.S. Army Ground Systems Contract

Raytheon and Palantir Technologies were awarded positions on a potential 10-year, $876 million contract to support the U.S. Army’s Distributed Common Ground System. The companies will develop a combined hardware and software solution to support training, security, data management, and usability.

The Space Alliance Finalizes Investment in Spaceflight Industries

The Space Alliance formed by Thales Alenia Space  and Telespazio announced it has purchased a minority stake in Spaceflight Industries, the company behind BlackSky. Together, the parties will deploy BlackSky’s constellation of high-revisit Earth imaging satellites, the first four of which will launch within the next year. This funding ensures the production of another 20 small sats planned for launch by 2020.

Additionally, Thales Alenia Space and Spaceflight Industries are partnering to create a joint venture called LeoStella LLC, which will focus on manufacturing small sats at scale for the BlackSky constellation. LeoStella will begin operation this year.

Photo Credit: NASA

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