And then there were 3: NRO extends contracts for radar imagery to Capella, ICEYE, Umbra

WASHINGTON — The National Reconnaissance Office has granted new two-year contracts to three providers of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite imagery: Capella Space, ICEYE US and Umbra, an NRO spokesperson told Breaking Defense on Wednesday.

“NRO’s Commercial Systems Program Office provided a two-year period of performance extension under NRO’s Strategic Commercial Enhancements Broad Agency Announcement (SCE BAA) which were initially awarded on Jan. 20, 2022. The period of performance extension for SCE BAA Stage III – Commercial Radar Capabilities is from July 2024 through July 2026,” the spokesperson elaborated.

There were five SAR-sat firms in the original set of study contracts — the three Stage III winners, plus the US arm of European aerospace behemoth Airbus and Florida start-up PredaSAR.

Airbus in October announced it had plans to cut up to 2,500 staff due to losses primarily in its Space Systems business. Reuters reported Wednesday that the firm announced 2,043 job reductions, more than half of which came from the Space Systems business.

PredaSAR’s parent company, Terran Orbital, in October 2022 abandoned plans for its SAR satellite constellation, and NRO dropped PredaSAR from its roster when the contract lapsed in September 2023. After a year of struggling with debt, Terran Orbital was acquired by Lockheed Martin on Oct. 30.

The new Stage III contracts are expected by industry officials to be the last of the short term, relatively small dollar awards under the SCC BAA — with senior NRO officials pushing to create a longer term program of record in the fiscal 2026 budget. NRO’s budget is classified, but it is an open secret that the agency has been slated only about $10 million a year for about 15 study contracts with providers of SAR, radio frequency geolocation and hyperspectral satellite imagery.

“From our perspective, it’s another sign that the Commercial [Systems Program Office] is committed to supporting SAR, and that they’re serious about it,” Joe Morrison, Umbra’s vice president and general manager for remote sensing, told Breaking Defense on Tuesday.

“And despite the fact that, to date, they have not yet been able to stand up a program of record, they are very concertedly, explicitly working to transition the study. In the meantime, they’re creating these additional phases that are substantive and very meaningful for the industry,” he added.