A Santa Barbara-based company captured one of five contracts recently awarded by the nation’s spy satellite agency seeking to incorporate commercial radar capabilities through a quicker purchasing process.
Umbra, which has a second office in Austin, Texas, in addtion to downtown Santa Barbara, won a National Reconnaissance Office contract to explore how commercial radar capabilities can help the agency’s mission.
The award, announced last week without a dollar value, marked the second defense contract win for the small firm since last summer.
Umbra designs, builds and operates small satellites, collecting high-resolution synthetic aperture radar images capable of seeing through dense clouds and at night.
“Supporting U.S. national security has always been core to Umbra’s mission, and we are thrilled to be included in the NRO’s continued pivot towards a hybrid overhead architecture,” said Jason Mallare, Umbra’s vice president of government programs. “We deeply believe that American companies in the commercial ISR [intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance] will make a very meaningful contribution to the U.S.’s ability to thrive.”
Once super-secret and only declassified 30 years ago, the NRO designs, builds, launches and maintains America’s intelligence satellites. The organization includes personnel from the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency.
The NRO contract with Umbra came under the agency’s new initiative, initially focused on commercial imagery and data, designed to evaluate, leverage and integrate new and emerging commercial capabilities.
In addition to driving innovation, the ultimate goal is to ensure that the U.S. government has access to the best available commercial remote-sensing technology, NRO officials said.
Winning NRO contracts alongside Umbra were Airbus, Capella Space, ICEYE and PredaSAR.
NRO Director Chris Scolese announced the release of the acquisition initiative for commercial radar imagery a relatively short three months ago under the program called the Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Strategic Commercial Enhancements.
“We know that users across the National System for Geospatial Intelligence are eager to explore commercial radar, and these contracts will allow us to rapidly validate capabilities and the benefits to the national mission,” Scolese said.
For decades, the NRO has been known for large, complex satellite systems, but has since joined the push toward faster development of smaller and simpler tools, while also speeding up the procurement process.
NRO officials said the contact award continues efforts to create diversified tools, including national and commercial satellites, large and small constellations, and various orbits.
“By leveraging commercial capabilities to the maximum extent possible, we are delivering increased flexibility and capacity, greater responsiveness and improved resiliency for our customers,” said Pete Muend, director of the NRO’s Commercial Systems Program Office.
The new commercial radar contracts will be crafted with an eye toward emerging providers but remain flexible so they can quickly be adjusted as needed depending on a number of factors, including customer requirements and on-orbit provider capabilities.
Last summer, the Air Force included Umbra among many firms listed in an announcement for a $950 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract and ability to compete in next rounds.
The Air Force is spearheading development of a Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) system involving all branches of the military across all domains, including land, sea, air, cyber and electromagnetic spectrum.
“The contract vehicle has a lot of potential, and is a great opportunity for Umbra. The initial award is small compared to our other government contracts, but this is a positive signal and it offers an avenue for the government to get familiar with our capabilities,” Umbra co-founder Gabe Dominocielo said last summer.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.