The U.S. intelligence community and Department of Defense have had ample time to study the use of satellite-based commercial remote sensing imagery and related data analytics and now should accelerate their purchases of these products, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said last week.
Various impediments to the purchase of commercial remote sensing products include a more than two-year delay in the National Reconnaissance Office awarding contract for electro-optical imagery, negatively impacting the financial performance of companies in the program, the chamber said in a Sept. 22 letter to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). The letter was a response to an ODNI Request for Information on “Barriers to Use of Commercial Overhead Data and Analytic Services in the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense.”
The chamber highlights that the use of commercial remote sensing imagery has already been proven in Ukraine’s ongoing war against Russia.
Basically, the chamber wants the government to create funded programs of record to sustain the acquisition of commercial imagery and related products.
“The USG’s reliance on low-value study and prototype contracts, along with the lack of a process for transitioning contracts associated with Broad Agency Announcements to operational contracts, jeopardizes the long-term viability of the U.S. commercial remote-sensing data and analytics industry,” Christopher Roberti, senior vice president for cyber, intelligence, and supply chain security, and John Neal, executive director for space policy at that chamber, say in their Sept. 22 response.
The chamber officials point out that other nations subsidize their domestic commercial remote sensing industries, making it more difficult for U.S. companies to win contracts internationally.