NGA Selects Orbital Insight for Project Aegir to Enhance Maritime Domain Awareness

Insider Brief:

• The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has chosen Orbital Insight for up to $2 million in pilot funding under Project Aegir through the inaugural Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO), a new initiative to streamline the procurement of innovative solutions.
• 82 teams competed in the CSO, and 12 finalists, including companies like Airbus U.S. Space and Defense, Anduril Industries, Inc., and BlackSky Geospatial Solutions, Inc., pitched their solutions.
• Over the next five months, Orbital Insight’s proposed solution will undergo pilot testing.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) announced it has chosen Orbital Insight for up to $2 million in pilot funding under Project Aegir. This decision comes through NGA’s inaugural Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO), a new method to streamline the procurement of innovative solutions.

Project Aegir addresses the growing demand for rapid commercial analytics and unclassified intelligence products to enhance maritime domain awareness. Specifically, it focuses on identifying, monitoring, and tracking illicit maritime activities within the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s jurisdiction.

NGA Director of Commercial Operations, Devin Brande, discussed the challenge posed to the commercial sector to devise innovative solutions for the Indo-Pacific theater. The CSO aims to expedite acquisition timelines, lower entry barriers, and meet expanding mission needs. The entire process, from public announcement to selection, took less than 90 days.

Eighty-two teams competed in the CSO, with twelve finalists pitching their solutions at the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) headquarters in Mountain View, California. The pitches, held from July 8-12, included input from maritime experts of the U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Intelligence Fusion Center Pacific. DIU’s Senior Scientist and Program Manager for Remote Sensing, Nirav Patel, Ph.D., hosted the sessions, assessing the teams’ ability to fuse diverse data types and use automation to identify and characterize maritime vessels.

The finalists included companies like Airbus U.S. Space and Defense, Anduril Industries, Inc., and BlackSky Geospatial Solutions, Inc. Over the next five months, Orbital Insight’s proposed solution will undergo pilot testing. The results will determine the potential for long-term contracts or broader acquisition efforts.