Weekly GEOINT Community News

IBM to Acquire Red Hat; NGA Seeks Agricultural Analysis System; Airbus and Ursa Renew Partnership; IARPA & NASA Release RFIs; More

raytheonk

IBM to Acquire Red Hat

IBM announced a deal to acquire all issued and outstanding shares of Red Hat for $190 per share, for a total value of approximately $34 billion. Red Hat will join IBM’s Hybrid Cloud team as a distinct unit, aiming to accelerate hybrid multi-cloud adoption across the business marketplace. Red Hat will continue to be led by Jim Whitehurst and Red Hat’s current management team, and IBM intends to maintain Red Hat’s headquarters, facilities, brands, and practices.

NGA Challenge Seeks Agricultural Analysis System

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is hosting an industry challenge seeking systems to automatically delineate agricultural field outlines in sub-Saharan Africa from satellite imagery. Submissions will compete for a $15,000 prize total. At least one submission is guaranteed to win, but multiple winners are possible. Proposed systems for this challenge should be applicable to both large homogenous and heterogeneous fields and are due Nov. 19.

Radiant Solutions Awarded NGA Research Contract

Maxar’s Radiant Solutions announced a three-year, $92 million contract award on a Small Business Innovation Research Phase III contract with NGA. Radiant Solutions will develop and deploy machine learning and crowdsourcing capabilities for the agency, including continued work using the company’s DeepCore Computer Vision SDK and Tomnod tools.

Airbus and Ursa Renew Partnership

Airbus Defence and Space signed a new four-year contract to continue providing Ursa Space Systems with access to Airbus radar satellite data. Under the agreement, Ursa will analyze the radar data for its customers in the energy and financial sectors as well as for custom monitoring services. The companies began this partnership in 2015.

Harris Delivers Sixth GPS III Payload

Harris Corporation delivered to Lockheed Martin the sixth of 10 navigation payloads contracted for the U.S. Air Force’s GPS III satellite program. The GPS III payload features a mission data unit that links atomic clocks, radiation-hardened processors, and powerful transmitters. This boosts signal power, accuracy, jamming resistance, and overall lifespan for the satellite. Harris plans to deliver a seventh navigation payload by the end of 2018.

IARPA Releases Two RFIs

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) recently released two requests for information (RFIs). The first RFI seeks input on research efforts in the area of innovative computer hardware and software architectures with intelligent computer environments. The second calls for innovative approaches to securing Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities from unintended radio frequency, optical, magnetic, or acoustic transmissions, and other tactical surveillance methods. This RFI also seeks methods to secure wireless devices and networks near and within sensitive areas.

NASA RFI Seeks Big Data & Cloud Computing Partners

NASA released an RFI seeking potential partnerships from the private sector in the areas of big data and cloud computing. Through partnerships, NASA aims to address data discovery, access, and use challenges related to large volumes of Earth science data. In addition, the partnerships will identify gaps and capabilities required to enable new methods to search, access, and use these large datasets in the cloud.

Altamira Wins Navy GIS Contract

Altamira Technologies Corporation was awarded a $6 million prime contract to maintain geographic information systems and the GeoReadiness Explorer for the U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southeast. Altamira experts will perform technological analysis, installation, deployment, and migration for GEOINT systems at Naval facilities throughout the southeastern United States.

UTC Develops SWIR Camera for Office of Naval Research

UTC Aerospace Systems’ Sensors Unlimited business developed what it claims is the world’s highest resolution, indium gallium arsenide, near infrared/shortwave infrared imaging sensor under a contract for the Office of Naval Research. The sensor provides roughly 16 times more detail than the company’s existing high-definition imaging capability. UTC developed the sensor for the Navy’s Spectral and Reconnaissance Imagery for Tactical Exploitation program, and has delivered four prototypes to the service as part of the original three-year, $9.7 million award.

Raytheon Awarded Army Radar Contract

Raytheon was awarded a $191 million contract by the U.S. Army for Ku-band radio frequency radars. Raytheon’s KuRFS, an advanced electronically scanned array system, was already delivered and deployed by the U.S. Army. KuRFS provides 360-degree situational awareness and defense against rockets, artillery, mortar, swarming UAS, and more.

Peer Intel

The U.S. Army chief of staff announced last week the appointment of Maj. Gen. Charles H. Cleveland as director of operations and military deputy for NGA. Cleveland was formerly vice director for intelligence J-2 at the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Jacobs announced three executive appointments aiming to expand growth in the company’s professional services sector. Marietta Hannigan was promoted to the new position of chief strategy and communications officer. Darren Kraabel was promoted to the role of chief technology and innovation officer. And Madhuri Andrews joined the company as chief information officer. 

Former Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert O. Work joined the MITRE Corporation’s Visiting Fellows Program. The program invites nationally recognized leaders in their respective fields to work as advisors with MITRE on topics of national importance.

Photo Credit: Raytheon

Weekly GEOINT Community News

DigitalGlobe Expands Partnership with Orbital Insight; 10 Winners Selected for Nextgov Bold Awards; LGS Innovations Awarded DARPA Contract

Weekly GEOINT Community News

NGA Publishes Antineutrino Global Map; U.S. Navy and Raytheon to Optimize Minehunting Sonar; FAA Awards Cloud Services Contract to CSC

Weekly GEOINT Community News

GSA Awards Spots on Agile Blanket Purchase Agreement; Carahsoft Hosting GEOINT Webinar Series; Boeing Awarded $1.49B Order to Build Surveillance Planes