Maxar is transitioning from being a supplier of satellite imagery to a broader intelligence services provider of data and predictive analytics.
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Maxar Technologies announced it has received multiple contracts in the first quarter of 2019 from the U.S. Air Force, Special Operations Command and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency with a total value of more than $95 million.
The company announced the contract awards on Monday at the GEOINT Symposium, the nation’s largest gathering of geospatial intelligence professionals hosted by the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation. Maxar’s geospatial business is undergoing a major rebranding campaign as the company moves beyond its legacy businesses DigitalGlobe (provider of satellite imagery) and Radiant Solutions (provider of intelligence analytics).
The operations of DigitalGlobe, SSL (Space Systems Loral) and Radiant Solutions were consolidated under the Maxar brand in February. The geospatial intelligence and space businesses are now overseen by Tony Frazier, Maxar’s executive vice president of global field operations.
One of the three awards is for a U.S. Air Force multi-year project worth more than $70 million to develop a platform to test the use of automated intelligence and machine learning in military operations. The company will show the “operational value of advanced analytics in day-to-day operations,” Frazier told SpaceNews. “This award highlights how we continue to gain traction with national security customers,” he said. The company is transitioning from a being a supplier of satellite imagery to an “end to end” intelligence services provider of data and predictive analytics, Frazier said.
The second award from U.S. Special Operations Command is a five-year indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract worth $6 million for 3D data engineering lab. SOCOM analysts will use the lab to rapidly sift through massive amounts of geospatial data in order to produce actionable insight.
The third deal announced by Maxar are two contracts worth $7 million from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to provide updates and enhancements to its imagery services. Frazier said these contracts are for change detection products and to update maps used by military operators. “With machine learning and crowdsourcing we can update the content in days, to produce a military quality map,” said Frazier. “We use machine learning to extract features from the imagery to build living maps.”
Frazier said Maxar was also awarded a number of classified contracts valued at more than $12 million.