got geoint?

Perhaps it was the USA World Cup victory yesterday, but we have decided to throw caution to the wind. That is correct, we are doing a news round up on a Thursday — as opposed to the occasional Wednesday round up. But fret not, our dedicated readers who cling to our weekly posting routine, Friday’s Food for Thought will be alive and well tomorrow. So, really, why a news round up on Thursday? Frankly, there is just soo much happening these days that we had to cast a wide net for you. From news about the increase in usage of commercial satellite imagery to the U.S. Marines to double strike planes for ISR, we offer wide variety of news items on this fourth Thursday in June. We hope you enjoy. And, go USA!

U.S. Marines Plan To Double As ISR, Strike Aircraft
The U.S. Marines know as well as anyone that there is never enough airborne video in Afghanistan to watch over forward bases, convoys and patrols. Listening to the feedback from the field, Marine planners in 2008 realized that their KC-130J aerial refueling planes might be able to double as ISR and strike planes. Last year, the service reprogrammed millions of dollars from an avionics initiative to assemble ISR and weapons kits for its refuelers, and within weeks the Marines hope to start flying the first KC-130J equipped with the cameras, computers and missiles. Read the full Defense News post here.

Use Of Commercial Earth Observation Data To Triple
Euroconsult has released a comprehensive study analyzing the mechanisms defense and security agencies will use to satisfy their image intelligence (IMINT) requirements over the coming decade. In its new report “Earth Observation: Defense and Security, World Prospects to 2019,” Euroconsult forecasts government procurement of commercial satellite Earth observation (EO) data will reach $2.6 billion by 2019, up from only $735 million in 2009. As governments try to reconcile their increasingly sophisticated IMINT needs with growing budget constraints, agencies around the world are exploring a variety of solutions. Read the full Space Daily post here.

U.S. Shifts Empire Challenge Venue
Organizers of the multinational Empire Challenge intelligence sharing demonstration have moved the event’s 2010 headquarters to Fort Huachuca, Ariz., to better reflect conditions in Afghanistan, U.S. Joint Forces Command announced June 18 after concluding a planning conference. “We looked and Fort Huachuca presented the right operating environment for us. It was a good mix of the kinds of environment they have in Afghanistan – the desert, mountains, valleys, vegetation,” said John Kittle, program manager for Empire Challenge 2010, in a press release posted on the JFCOM website. The event is scheduled to run form July 26 through Aug. 13. In past years, it was centered at the U.S. Navy’s China Lake test range in California’s Mojave Desert. But after last year’s Empire Challenge, a top JFCOM official ordered planners to tune the event more closely to the networking challenges presented by Afghanistan. Read the full C4ISR Journal post here.

SAIC Focuses on Air Force Video Systems Technology
Science Applications International Corp. will help the Air Force improve its overhead intelligence gathering efforts under a five-year follow-on contract potentially worth more than $49 million. The award from the Air Force Warner Robins Air Logistics Center calls for SAIC to provide support to the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System’s Video Processing Capability enterprise architecture at Dayton, Ohio. SAIC’s technical services will help the center’s systems process, view and exploit full motion video provided by unmanned aerial vehicles and sensor platforms operated by the intelligence community, according to an SAIC announcement today. Read the full Washington Technology post here.

Astrium… Spatial Injection For TanDEM-X (Launch)
The TanDEM-X radar satellite, designed and built by Astrium (Friedrichshafen), was successfully launched early this morning (Monday, June 21st). At 04:14 hours CEST (08:14 hours local time), a Russian Dnepr launch vehicle carrying the huge satellite, which has a launch mass of more than 1.3 metric tons and measures five metres in length, lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Approximately ten minutes later, the satellite separated from the launch vehicle’s upper stage. Read the full SatNews.com post here.

Gov Forum: Back-Office Upgrades Key To Intel Sharing
While collaboration tools and cultural barriers dominate intelligence information discussions, back office upgrades continue to play a major role, intelligence community IT leaders said this week at the InformationWeek Government IT Leadership Forum. One of the major current pushes in the intelligence community is identity and access management. “It’s the number one issue we’re working on right now,” said Casey Henson, CTO at the Defense Intelligence Agency. Read the full InformationWeek post here.

New NOAA Website Provides Complete Mapping of Gulf Oil Spill Information
President Barack Obama took to the nation’s airwaves last night assuring Americans, “We will fight this spill with everything we’ve got for as long it takes.” While residents along the Gulf Coast are seeing little help from BP and the American government, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released a new tool to help visualize the oil spill. Since the initial explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig 58 days ago, an untold number of gallons have poured into the Gulf of Mexico. The ever-expanding oil slick presents the nation with an ecological disaster of massive proportions. Read the full Examiner article from June 16th here.

Tags: Astrium, Commercial Satellite Imagery, DigitalGlobe, Empire Challenge, GEOINT, got geoint?, Intel Sharing, ISR Strikes, NOAA, NOAA and Oil Spill, SAIC, SAIC and Air Force Video Systems, United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, US Marines, USA and the World Cup, USGIF, World Cup Victory