The National Reconnaissance Office, the Pentagon agency, said it awarded contracts for satellite imagery worth billions of dollars to three companies, significantly expanding its use of commercial space services.

The National Reconnaissance Office develops, launches and operates Earth observation satellites for the US government.

Through its Electro-Optical Commercial Layer program, or EOCL, the U.S. agency issued 10-year contracts to satellite imagery companies BlackSky, Maxar Technologies Inc. and Planet Labs.

“EOCL allows us to meet a larger number of customer requirements faster than ever before and dedicate national systems to the most challenging and sensitive missions,” the National Reconnaissance Office said.

BlackSky, which has offices in Seattle and Herndon, VA, said in a statement its deal is worth as much as $1 billion over a decade.

Maxar, based in Westminster, Colorado, said its contract is estimated at more than $3 billion.

San Francisco-based Planet did not disclose its contract value.

Commercial intelligence

Commercial satellite imagery is seeing increased demand, supplementing government-owned space sensing capabilities and recently providing key insights into Russian troop movements in Ukraine.

NRO in 2019 awarded contracts to Maxar, BlackSky and Planet to conduct initial market research on the ability of commercial companies to meet government satellite imagery needs.

“EOCL will support the mission needs of NRO’s half-million intelligence, defense and federal civil agency users over the next decade,” NRO said in the statement. “It will also help ensure long-term continuous support for the U.S. Commercial remote probing industry.”

Previously, NRO’s primary source for imagery was through a contract called EnhancedView, which was signed with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.

EOCL was designed to improve EnhancedView effort to make imagery distribution easier and more standardized. The agency plans to award future contracts for commercial probing capabilities and has issued contracts for studying synthetic aperture radar, radio frequency remote sensing and hyperspectral imaging.