HawkEye 360 Inc. was awarded a contract from the NRO’s Commercial Systems Program Office (CSPO) — this contract will assess, mature, integrate, and operationalize commercial RF intelligence into the NRO’s integrated overhead architecture to support warfighters, the intelligence community, and policymakers. The program represents a partnership between the NRO and HawkEye 360 to explore near- and long-term, high-impact capabilities that commercial RF can deliver.
HawkEye 360 will initially model and simulate current and future RF-sensing capabilities, engage in live end-to-end demonstrations, conduct accuracy and quality assessments, and demonstrate overhead delivery of RF data to government fixed, transportable, and mobile ground stations around the world. The outcome is to deliver trusted and resilient results that provide high mission impact to the NRO and its mission partners.
This effort is part of the NRO’s Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Framework for Strategic Commercial Enhancements to assess and operationalize commercial space capabilities into the NRO’s architecture. The contract’s initial Phase I award and Phase II extension cover up to a three-year period. Under the contract, the customer will assess current and future capabilities and explore establishing a multi-year service level agreement to support the NRO’s evolving mission requirements.
HawkEye 360 operates a growing constellation of satellites which detects, characterizes, and geolocates radio frequency signals from a broad range of emitters used for communication, navigation, and security. By processing and analyzing this RF data, the company delivers actionable insights and a unique knowledge for operations across a range of sectors, including environmental protection and national security. The company is funded to develop and operate 20 clusters that will provide an average global revisit rate of 12-20 minutes.
“Leveraging nearly four years of on-orbit operational experience, HawkEye 360 appreciates the opportunity to continue its work with the NRO to integrate commercial RF innovations into its evolving architecture,” said Alex Fox, Chief Growth Officer for HawkEye 360. “We look forward to continuing our partnership with the NRO to deliver commercial RF capabilities and support the agency’s mission to advance U.S. national security and the security of our allies.”
HawkEye 360 Inc. recently announced that two new signals are available as part of the company’s RFGeo™ signal mapping product: VHF and UHF Flex.
RFGeo data and analytics provide a new geospatial data layer that enables RF awareness, using the unique data generated by HawkEye 360’s satellite constellation to detect and geolocate RF signals of interest.
Leveraging overhead collected UHF and VHF geolocated signal data, analysts can increase the efficiency of their workflows by rapidly discovering emitters of interest. RFGeo leverages the power of HawkEye 360’s growing constellation of satellites to detect and geolocate RF signals across Earth’s surface. The antennas on HawkEye 360’s satellites can cover areas spanning millions of square kilometers, enabling large-scale monitoring of RF activity over a wide RF spectrum.
VHF Flex and UHF Flex are being used in RF-based multi-INT workflows to gain situational awareness into a broad range of activities, including early-warning radars, military exercises, line-of-sight radio communications, and indicators of interference.
UHF Flex and VHF Flex differ from other signals in the firm’s catalog by allowing customers to select from a broader frequency range, enabling more collections, characterizations, geolocations, and insights into RF activity.
The two signals join a growing catalog of signals that include VHF Marine Communications, UHF Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB), UHF Push-to-talk radios, GPS Interference, L-Band Mobile Satellite Communications (such as Thuraya and Inmarsat devices), X- and S-Band Maritime as well as Land-based Radars. All signals within the RFGeo product can be purchased by interested parties through a historical archive, new collections, or regional awareness subscription, if applicable.
A video regarding HawkEye 360’s broad range of signals RFGeo is available for viewing via this direct link…
“VHF and UHF Flex represent our ongoing commitment to expand our products and services to address the rapidly evolving needs of our clients for RF Intelligence,” said Alex Fox, HawkEye 360 Chief Growth Officer. “The new UHF and VHF signals will help our clients better understand activity in their area of interest without the need to specify a specific waveform. This is the next chapter of increasingly powerful capabilities we are introducing over the next six months. I am excited about the work our team is doing with our clients to deliver high-impact solutions and value.”