By Richard Scott
The US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Commercial Radio Frequency Capability Augmentation (CRFCA) program has contracted space-based RF data and analytics company HawkEye 360 (Herndon, VA) to provide commercial RF data in support of US national security missions.
The contract marks a milestone, according to the company, in that it moves the company to a more operational delivery contract. Through the CRFCA program, HawkEye 360 will provide RF data to assists government users with operational awareness and mission planning.
The NRO is working to operationalize and expand the use of US-sourced commercial RF capabilities for defense and intelligence consumers. The CRFCA award builds upon NRO’s three-phased Commercial Radio Frequency Capabilities (CRFC) effort, which began in September 2022 as a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) study. CRFC assessed the capabilities of multiple commercial RF providers through a structured process of modeling, simulation and on-orbit demonstrations.
While the BAA was statutorily capped by a contract ceiling, HawkEye360’s performance during these trials proved the mission readiness of its systems, said the NRO. “This success paved the way for the new CRFCA contract [which]represents a significant step in the NRO’s strategy to build a more resilient and responsive overhead architecture,” it added.
HawkEye 360 has become the first commercial provider to move from test and evaluation efforts into an operational augmentation contract through the CRFCA program, which is managed by the NRO’s Commercial Systems Program Office. This transition “reflects sustained collaboration with the NRO and the maturation of commercial RF sensing as a reliable source of mission-ready data,” said the company.