National Reconnaissance Office Release #04-21

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Oct. 7, 2021

Office of Public Affairs

Contact: (703) 808-5050

NRO announces acquisition to explore new and emerging commercial capabilities

CHANTILLY, Va – The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) today announced a new 

acquisition, the Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Framework for Strategic Commercial 

Enhancements, focused on new and emerging commercial capabilities. 

“We’ve seen an explosion of innovation on the commercial side,” said Dr. Chris Scolese, NRO 

director, who announced the BAA during his keynote remarks at the United States Geospatial 

Intelligence Forum’s GEOINT Symposium. “This BAA Framework will allow the NRO to rapidly 

explore, assess, and leverage innovative industry capabilities to meet new intelligence 

challenges and inform operational requirements.” 

Under the new BAA Framework for Strategic Commercial Enhancements, the NRO plans to 

release independent focus areas multiple times per year. The BAA Framework and the first 

focus area, commercial radar capabilities, will be open to offerors across industry, including 

foreign-owned U.S. companies. 

The NRO’s diversified architecture—comprised of national and commercial satellites, large and 

small constellations, working across multiple orbits—provides increased flexibility and capacity, 

greater responsiveness, and improved resiliency. Leveraging commercial capabilities to the 

maximum extent possible to meet mission requirements allows the NRO to reserve national 

assets for the most stressing and sensitive missions. 

Focused on commercial imagery and data, this BAA builds on the success of the NRO’s 

Commercial Systems Program Office’s (CSPO) earlier study efforts and creates additional 

opportunities to expand NRO’s commitment to new and emerging commercial capabilities. It is 

specifically designed to explore and push forward new phenomenologies, including commercial 

radar, hyperspectral imagery, and radio frequency remote sensing, as well as emerging and 

evolving electro-optical capabilities. The Strategic Commercial Enhancements framework will 

reach across disciplines to drive innovation and explore new phenomenologies, while 

examining emerging and evolving capabilities.
National Reconnaissance Office | Office of Public Affairs

“The breadth of this framework ensures we have access to the data and providers needed to 

deliver value today, assess mission utility with our mission partners, and inform the Intelligence 

Community and Department of Defense’s future needs,” said Pete Muend, CSPO’s director.

The new BAA Framework and first focus area will be available at https://acq.westfields.net.

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For sixty years, the NRO has developed, acquired, launched and operated the architecture that is

the foundation for America’s advantage and strength in space. Using a diversified architecture 

of spacecraft, NRO collects and delivers the best space-based intelligence, surveillance, and 

reconnaissance content on the planet. Its customers include every member of the Intelligence 

Community, Department of Defense, two dozen domestic agencies, warfighters, decisionmakers, and policymakers. Learn more at nro.gov.