Weekly GEOINT Community News

Airbus Awarded DARPA Contract

Airbus Defense and Space won a contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a satellite bus for the agency’s Blackjack program. Blackjack intends to show the military utility of global low-earth orbit constellations by pairing commercial satellite buses with military sensors and payloads.

New Air Force Innovation Office Highlights Goals

The Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center’s new Innovation Office recently outlined its three primary goals: to nurture inventive ideas, to innovate on those ideas, and to implement those innovations to counter threats and to ensure U.S. national security. To help Airmen and civilian members further implement their ideas, the Innovation Office is launching a “Call for Innovation” campaign January 1-31 to fund new ideas and partner with emerging innovators.

Hexagon Geospatial Releases Luciad Update

Hexagon Geospatial announced the V2018.1 release of its Luciad Portfolio. This update expands 3D capabilities and includes additional data formats and standards for users in military and maritime domains. Both the server and desktop solution added support for the E57 point cloud format and automate point cloud data optimization through the Tiling Engine API. The release works toward Hexagon’s vision for a “Smart Digital Reality.”

Peer Intel

Maxar Technologies appointed Daniel Jablonsky president and chief executive officer. Jablonsky, who most recently served as president of DigitalGlobe, will also join Maxar’s board of directors.

Noblis announced Rich Jacques joined the company as vice president of intelligence. Jacques will lead strategic direction for Noblis’ intelligence, national security, and law enforcement programs in addition to the Noblis ESI subsidiary. Prior to joining Noblis, Jacques held positions at Belcan and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Photo Credit: Hexagon Geospatial