Pete Muend: NRO Issues Draft RFP for Electro-Optical Imagery Acquisition Effort

The National Reconnaissance Office has released a draft request for proposals to seek information on commercial companies that could provide remote sensing capabilities through electro-optical cameras, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

“Actually, it just was announced this morning, on the electro-optical side a draft RFP came out re-looking at that sector … to see where the industry is pushing us, what what else is out there and and where we can position [ourselves] on the government side to take better advantage of that,” Pete Muend, director of commercial operations at NRO, said at a conference.

Muend said NRO plans to issue a formal solicitation by the end of September and then award a contract to “see what other EO or closely related phenomenologies are out there.”

He noted that the agency aims to bring in new providers in the EO area and those offering non-Earth imagery and infrared imagery to determine “what mission utility is there for some of these other providers.”

In May 2022, NRO awarded Electro-Optical Commercial Layer awards to BlackSky, Maxar Technologies and Planet to procure commercial imagery and remote sensing data products in support of defense and intelligence communities.

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