National Intelligence Service (NRO), responsible for American spy satellites, is looking for partners to accelerate the implementation of state-of-the-art intelligence capabilities, Observation and reconnaissance. During the 41st Space Symposium, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence William Adkins said, that “the agency is ready to work with the government, industry, academic circles, allies and other partners - the main thing, to have results".
NRO has established partnerships with many companies in recent years. The agency remains a dominant force in the market as one of the world's largest customers of remote sensing data and imagery. Over the past five years, it has signed contracts with over 150 commercial suppliers, which resulted in “significant cost improvements, speed and flexibility". In particular, commercial companies have provided NRO with radiation-resistant microelectronics, improvement of electro-optical devices, radars and new data collection methods. Companies are also working with NROs on artificial intelligence, machine learning, quantum sensing, quantum computing and cyber security. At the same time, the agency closely cooperates with the US military and intelligence agencies. Example, hundreds of US Space Force personnel work at NRO, "providing expertise in everything from procurement to operations, intelligence and cyber security".
William Adkins emphasized, that partnerships are essential, as adversaries deploy new capabilities in months. That is why the question today is not that, whether the way systems are procured and deployed needs to change, and in that, are these changes happening fast enough?.
Source: https://spacenews.com