The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is ready to buy a lot of commercial data but needs a “trusted broker” to ensure it is getting the best information at the right price.
As the intelligence community’s source for geophysical intelligence—visual and other relevant data based on physical location—NGA has lots of resources. But the agency can’t see everywhere.
Rather than spending large amounts of time and money building more intelligence infrastructure, NGA has been looking at ways to enhance its vision through existing commercial data sources.
“The Geophysical Data Purchasing contract will serve as an avenue for NGA to purchase off-the-shelf geophysical data from external sources in areas of the world where NGA currently has gaps in data coverage and will allow for the expansion of potential sources currently unknown to NGA,” the agency said in a solicitation posted Monday to beta.SAM.gov.
As those efforts ramp up, the agency plans to contract with a trusted broker to act as an intermediary in the procurement process.
The big push for the GDP contract will be to acquire gravity data, which the agency applies to its Earth Gravitational Model “used in navigation products for the DOD and general use for industry and academia,” the solicitation states, though NGA is looking for other types of data, as well.
“In the past, these models and products were constructed using data that was given to NGA or provided through their gravity meter loan program,” according to the performance work statement. “Occasionally, NGA purchases off-the-shelf gravity data to supplement other data streams.”
In recent years, NGA has moved to purc ..
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