Christopher Scolese, director of the National Reconnaissance Office and a 2023 Wash100 awardee, said NRO expects to release a request for proposals for commercial electro-optical capabilities in the fall of 2023.
During his keynote address at the Space Symposium on Tuesday, he shared that the commercial EO capabilities will serve as the fourth focus area of the agency’s Strategic Commercial Enhancements Broad Agency Announcement program.
“The commercial EO market continues to expand with new capabilities and new providers, and we want to be able to assess and use these capabilities to support our mission,” Scolese remarked.
“We expect the RFP this fall, and this acquisition will be open to both U.S. companies and foreign-owned companies with subsidiaries in the U.S.,” he added.
During the event, Scolese discussed NRO’s efforts to keep ahead of competition, such as modernizing its space and ground infrastructure and advancing automation and machine learning capabilities and multi-intelligence processes.
He also mentioned NRO’s partnerships with other agencies, industry and academia, its commitment to innovation, recruitment efforts and the threats posed by Russia and China in the space domain.
