- The National Reconnaissance Office has awarded Capella Space, ICEYE US and Umbra Lab Radar Commercial Augmentation contracts
- The RCA awards are intended to expand the adoption of commerical radar capabilities by the Department of War and the intelligence community
- The contract awards are a follow-up to the Commercial Radar Capabilities initiative introduced by the NRO in January 2022
The National Reconnaissance Office announced Wednesday that it has awarded three Radar Commercial Augmentation contracts as part of its ongoing effort to operationalize and expand the use of U.S. commercial radar capabilities across the intelligence community and the Department of War.
Capella Space, ICEYE US and Umbra Lab were selected to receive the awards.
Hear directly from intelligence community leaders like National Security Agency Deputy Director Tim Kosiba and National Reconnaissance Office’s Ryan Lewis as they tackle artificial intelligence, cyber and data challenges reshaping the mission at the 2026 Intel Summit on September 24. Secure your spot now to connect with top officials and industry innovators driving the future of intelligence.
What Are the Details of the Radar Commercial Augmentation Contracts?
Under the new contracts, the three companies will work directly with NRO utilizing day, night and all-weather Synthetic Aperture Radar imaging to provide intelligence analysis support, global discovery and monitoring, disaster response and humanitarian assistance missions. The approach draws on lessons learned from NRO’s Electro-Optical Commercial Layer program and other remote sensing initiatives from private companies.The agency’s Commercial Systems Program Office will manage the RCA effort.
What Is the Origin of the RCA Awards?
The RCA awards build on NRO’s three-phase Commercial Radar Capabilities effort, launched in January 2022 to evaluate multiple commercial SAR providers through six months of modeling and simulation and two years of on-orbit and end-to-end mission performance demonstrations. The NRO selected five companies including Airbus U.S. and PredaSAR. Capella Space, ICEYE US and Umbra Lab’s performance during those assessments made them eligible for the follow-on RCA contracts.
