The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is examining the potential of analytics technology with commercial radio frequency data to support GEOINT applications as part of a pilot program that commenced in September 2020.
NGA said Wednesday it works with combatant commands to determine how insights from the experimental effort can help the U.S. military increase awareness across the maritime domain and share unclassified information with regional allies.
“This pilot is an example of NGA’s commitment to exploring how we can integrate new and emerging commercial data sources into our analytic platforms to better support our mission partners’ needs," said Scot Currie, director of the agency's source operations group.
Herndon, Virginia-based analytics company HawkEye 360 helps the agency fuse RF data through the Predictive GEOINT Prototype under an integration study contract. The agency noted it wants to know the use of such information in mapping activity associated with radar imaging satellites and electro-optical sensors.
“Moving forward, we want commercial industry to develop automated imagery exploitation algorithms, bringing multiple sources together, including RF geolocations, so we have a stream of information and activity updates feeding our national security algorithms," said Dave Gauthier, director of NGA's source commercial business and operations group.