The German defence contractor Rheinmetall on Thursday said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Colorado-based Vantor to develop satellite-based military intelligence for Germany and other European countries.
The companies plan to form a joint venture in Germany to provide a platform that combines images from satellites and drones with mapping data to give armed forces a detailed picture of battlefield conditions.
The system is intended to support Germany's defence requirements as well as European intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance programs. It will help military commanders carry out tasks such as mission planning, targeting, battle damage assessment, monitoring operations and command-and-control activities.
“To maintain decision advantage at the pace of today’s conflict, Europe’s armed forces need control of the architecture that turns that data into trusted ground truth,” said Dan Smoot, Vantor's chief executive, in a press release.
Under the partnership, Vantor's spatial intelligence platform will be integrated with Rheinmetall's command-and-control systems, combining Vantor's satellite imagery and intelligence software with Rheinmetall's defence expertise and European industrial network.
The companies said the platform will allow users to collect, combine and analyse information from multiple sources, including radar, optical and infrared satellites, as well as airborne sensors, to produce actionable intelligence.
The platform will enable customers to directly task Vantor's satellites to collect images of areas of interest and receive the imagery in near real time, potentially within 15 minutes of capture.
