By Geoff Fein
The relationship between the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the commercial imagery sector remains strong and will remain so into the future as the agency continues to rely on a mix of fee for service imagery and data that NGA acquires on its own, a top agency official said.
“The important thing, our relationship with industry goes out as far out as I can possible see. It will be vigorous and will continue to be as or more extensive as it is now,” Vice Adm. Robert Murrett, NGA director, told reporters during a briefing Monday at the agency’s headquarters.
“I think that our program at NGA reflects that, and our day-in and day-out engagement with the commercial providers reflects that as well,” he added.
While Murrett noted NGA will continue to use a mix of fee-for-service data as well as its own collected imagery, he said nobody really knows for certain whether NGA will come to rely more on fee-for-service imagery.
“I think it will always be a balance of the two, and you are always going to try and strike the right balance,” he said.
The balance between fee-for-service and NGA’s own gathered data has evolved over the past decade, Murrett said.
“I think we have struck a good balance today. What that line is going to look like in the future…I think it will go back and forth in some ways…but I think the important point is we are committed to, and as our program reflects, we will have a vigorous and extensive relationship with the commercial industry for as far out as I can see,” he added.
Murrett said he wants to reassure the commercial industry they are a vital player in NGA’s mission.
“If you look at our program and what we are planning to do in the out years with the commercial vendors, it’s dramatic,” he said. “They should have more confidence, perhaps.”
In September, Colorado-based DigitalGlobe successfully launched its WorldView-1 satellite (Defense Daily, Sept. 19). The satellite will provide commercial, high- resolution images of Earth, and is capable of collecting, storing and down-linking more frequently updated imagery.
“[It is] still undergoing an extended period of testing, but I think we can already say it is a very successful evolution, underscoring the relationship that we have with DigitalGlobe and the success they have had in putting that platform in orbit,” Murrett said.
He noted DigitalGlobe will provide a tremendous volume of imagery to NGA and other commercial partners.
A second satellite, GeoEye-1, from GeoEye [GEOY], is expected to be launched later this year. Murrett said that launch has been delayed. “But we are confident that will be a successful launch and we will continue to partner with them very closely, too.”
Murrett said that while being able to access additional data is always good, any delay in GeoEye-1’s launch should not have an impact.
“I know that GeoEye will make the best decision in terms of wanting to put the sensor in orbit, and once that happens we will take full advantage of it because of the extensive relationship with we have both GeoEye and DigitalGlobe,” he said.
Murrett told reporters Monday that NGA is working with a number of industrial partners and the agency is seeing interest in its activities grow.
At a recent U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) industry event at the Washington Navy Yard, 20 companies showed up to learn about NGA opportunities.
“I really like that forum a lot because when you are talking to 20 different industrial partners you can speak very openly, very forthrightly, and absolutely [there is] no accusation of being preferential at all,” Murrett explained. “The 20 partners that showed up, at the most recent session, probably got as clear a view as where this organization is going and what we are doing, as any group I’ve ever talked to. I think that reflects the importance we place on the engagement of industry and also the advantages of doing so under the aegis of USGIF.”