NGA’s Global EDG program is a good example of how the 2017 bifurcation of authority over commercial remote sensing acquisition between the NGA and the National Reconnaissance Organization (NRO) — a transition that remains somewhat troubled –is supposed to work.

The new satellite export control rules being finalized by the Commerce and State Depts. will take into account the “need to maintain export controls with some countries, while streamlining them for others,” says Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

“[A]dversaries could track the movements of U.S. and allied military equipment, detecting patterns of training and operations; hyperspectral imaging can identify chemical compositions; short-wavelength infrared imaging can see through clouds; and SAR sensors can image at night. When determining risks to national security, one can define it as the risk of being seen or detected.”

“Real-time tasking and receiving data is going to b the future,” Capella CEO Payam Banazadeh says. “Over time every single remote sensing company will go this direction.” 

Tal Inbar, senior space analyst at the Space Research Center of the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies, says that Arab space initiatives pose no threat at the moment.