What does an NRO LEO constellation mean for the EO sector?

After watching startups launch dozens to hundreds of small imaging satellites in Low Earth Orbit, the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office is getting in on the action. The spy agency has six launches planned this year for a proliferated LEO constellation, marking a shift from demonstrations to operations.

Specifics about the constellation, like how many satellites, their size, resolution and sensor suite remain unknown. NRO is a large consumer of optical imagery, mainly through the 10-year Electro-Optical Commercial Layer (EOCL) program that split billions of dollars of contracts between BlackSky, Maxar and Planet. The agency has also doled out a series of smaller study contracts across the industry for radar, hyperspectral, and RF mapping data. So why build a government-run constellation, and is it a threat to industry?

Probably not. If anything, the NRO constellation is an endorsement of the commercial sector’s approach to EO. The agency is already the largest customer of BlackSky, Planet and Maxar, because it has a large appetite for responsive, high resolution/VHR imagery. What the NRO constellation proves is that the commercial sector has demonstrated a capability with such strong utility that the agency wants even more than what’s available.

DoD’s latest Commercial Space Integration Strategy, released April 2, categorizes Information, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) as a “hybrid mission area,” meaning some functions will be government-led, while others performed by commercial players. We've seen rapid growth in the commercial sector’s ability to field ISR sensors. It's only natural NRO would do the same.

Assuming NRO is holding to its oft stated M.O. “buy what we can, build what we must,” then this constellation will enable capabilities that can’t be bought commercially. We're speculating here, but NRO may not have to make the typical industry tradeoff of many lower-resolution satellites (Planet) or a few high-resolution sensors (Maxar). Absent market forces, the agency may have the wherewithal to field a large constellation of powerful satellites too expensive for commercial operators to deploy. Or it could deploy satellites with multiple sensors (optical, SAR, hyperspectral, RF mapping) on the same platform. The point is, NRO can have its cake and eat it, too.

SOURCE: https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2024/04/09/spy-agency-eyes-may-launch-of-first-proliferated-constellation/