U.S. Army turns to ICEYE for SAR mission imagery

Author: EIS Release Date: Dec 6, 2021

ICEYE, the Finnish satellite imagery specialist, has entered into an R&D agreement with the U.S. Army to advance the Earth observation technology supporting army missions.

 

U.S. Army turns to Iceye for mission imagery

 

Specifically, the cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) is with the U.S. Army’s Space and Missile Defense Technical Center (SMDTC). They will explore together low-cost, on-orbit, synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) related concepts, says ICEYE.

 

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The areas of interest include SAR systems involving imagery tasking and uplink, SAR satellite downlink and ground station(s), image processing, and image dissemination for army requirements.

 

 

According to the company, emphasis will be placed on data latency reduction between the sensor and the shooter, as well as interfacing with the U.S. Army’s current Common Ground Terminal (CGT) and the future Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node (TITAN), a mobile ground station system that’s currently under development.

 

 

“The U.S Army is looking for affordable and versatile SAR and other advanced sensor technology to enhance its many systems and missions. High-quality, frequent-revisit commercial SAR is particularly important to us because it enables day-night, all-weather imaging and complements national satellite systems,” said Colonel Matt Anderson, SMDC’s Space Directorate leader.

 

ICEYE’s small radar imaging satellites can form high-resolution images of areas of the Earth in daylight and night time, and through cloud cover. Its satellites can collect images over very wide areas as well as spot collects over specific sites anywhere in the world.

 

To date, the company has launched 14 spacecraft to date and operates what it describes as the world’s largest fleet of commercial SAR satellites.