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21-078 Pre NGA Commercial Data and Analytic Services Industry Day QA ApprovedForPublicRelease.pdf
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Nov. 12, 2020
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1. Is NGA interested in LEO/Smallsat architectures?
Answer: NGA is interested in the remote sensing collection capabilities inherent in various
architectures, and the data and services that these architectures might deliver. In fact, the product
offerings derived from various sensors are the focus of the Commercial GEOINT Industry Day.
2. Is NGA interested in new methods of space launch?
Answer: No. Methods of space launch are the purview of several other Agencies across the
Federal Government but not NGA.
3. Will NGA be issuing more contracts as OTA contracts rather than traditional contract
vehicles?
Answer: The contracting vehicle chosen by the Government must fit the situation, the nature of
the products or services which the governments intends to procure, and of course the delivery
timelines. That said, for the Commercial GEOINT and Business Operations Group (SC), one of
the top priorities is the use of innovative contracting, which will get the needed data or service to
the user at the right time to fulfill the mission. Other Transaction Authority type contracts are
just one type of contract that NGA may consider to meet mission requirements.
4. Will NGA be further prioritizing the Technology Focus Areas that have been previously
identified?
Answer: NGA published the Agency-level Technology Focus Areas in order to expose Industry
to the challenges NGA was facing and to ask for Industry and Academias assistance in tackling
those challenges. During the Industry Day hosted by the Commercial GEOINT and Business
Operations Group (SC), you will be exposed to focus areas which build on those Agency-level
Technology Focus Areas. The intent is Industry will use the SC Focus Areas as signposts for
opportunities where commercial GEOINT data and services will be able to immediately address
mission needs in FY21.
5. What are NGAs Requirement for FY21?
Answer: FY21 will be a year of movement within NGAs Source Commercial & Business
Operations Group (SC). Below is simply a sampling of the requirements that NGA/SC will be
exploring in FY21.
NGA will see a major shift to non-traditional GEOINT. By this NGA means we are going to be
looking at the Commercial Marketplace for more non-pixel (think non-imagery) based GEOINT
data and derived analytical services. NGAs objective is to leverage every source of geospatial
information available to inform and provide context for our products and services. NGA looks
for innovative, non-traditional sources that provide new methods of discovering and describing
objects and activities not obtainable through traditional imagery-derived data alone. Within the
Commercial Marketplace, pixels and imagery will always be important and NGA will use pixel-
based data to fill in the gaps which remain in our understanding of a problem after non-
Approved for public release 21-078
traditional data and services are applied. The opportunity space created by commercial non-
traditional services allows us to augment our analytics with a wider variety of analysis-ready
information.
NGA has a strong demand for innovative Commercial Services to provide high pedigree
products which analysts can verify, use, and fuse right out of the box. These Commercial
Services will use both traditional and non-traditional data sources in order to answer the
Agencys toughest questions.
We see a need for commercially produced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning-derived
data to feed our various models reducing workload on analysis and increasing mission value.
NGA requires a commercial service as a means of managing what amounts to virtual
constellations, which provide constant streams of non-traditional and traditional geo-referenced
data on activities, objects, and events.
NGA has a requirement to use commercial data and services to augment our production capacity
for describing the significance and nominal activity levels at various global military and
economic facilities.
NGA has a requirement to use commercial data and services to provide spatially referenced
aggregate statistics about land use, population distribution, and collective identities.
NGA as a requirement to use commercial data and services to monitor specific topics or areas of
interest globally to stay abreast of emerging issues, develop patterns of life, and generate
predictive intelligence.
We see a need for commercially produced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning-derived
data to feed our various models, reducing workload on analysis and increasing mission value.
6. Why did the government cancel the Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA),
47QTCA19A000B, the Earth Observation Solutions BPA?
Answer: GSA and NGA agreed to not renew the Earth Observation Solutions Blanket Purchase
Agreement, and let it expire due to a lack of purchases made on the BPA.
7. What role will IGAPP play in NGA's acquisition strategy?
Answer: As with all programs and associated contracts, the needs of the Government will
determine what contract type and what program if any will be used.
8. NGA has implied in the past that the procurement of analytical services is challenging
due to a difficulty in evaluating those services against other competing services and the
inability to evaluate how well a service may perform - the results when the services does not
Approved for public release 21-078
identify what it intended to identify (either a lack of whatever the services is intended to
identify, or just a poorly developed service). Can NGA discuss its strategy to mitigate this?
Answer: NGA believes this question is asking whether NGA has a strategy for evaluating
commercial analytical services. NGA/SC has an ongoing process to engage with industry, a
portion of which is the evaluation of data and services. That process allows NGA to gain insight
into industry capabilities and services. At the time of procurements, NGA is able to use the
expertise gained in these assessments and other activities to bring subject matter experts to bear
in evaluating competing services.
9. Is NGA still considering using pilots and short contracting efforts to evaluate
capabilities? If so, how is NGA moving to quickly and efficiently transition successful
efforts to the appropriate organizations for operational use? Please speak to the acquisition
process after successful execution.
Answer: Discovery remains an important aspect of NGAs knowledge growth. NGA might use a
short term contract, a pilot, an assessment through bailment agreement, or several other
approaches. The government has, and will continue to, tailor the right approach to the need,
budget, and outcome. Because of this, the follow-on acquisition approach will also vary. At
industry day you will hear about focus areas that will serve as signposts for enduring needs. The
intent of this Industry Day is to help industry consider their own approaches in regards to FY21
competitions and beyond.
10. What does NGA believe are the greatest drivers in analytical services - for example, is
NGA looking to augment the analytical workforce, to drive efficiency into processes, to
parse through vast amount of data, to better leverage OSINT, etc.?
Answer: NGA is looking for the following: Augmenting our capacity to meet the information
needs of warfighters, the Intelligence Community, and policymakers with the delivery of quality
assured finished analytic products; improving the efficiency and quality of our analytic
production with structured observations of activity and objects, produced with automated
methods; improving the efficiency and quality of our analysis with access to structured data from
open or publicly available sources.
11. Does the NGA seek unlimited data rights on all the results expected from commercial
analytic services?
Answer: DFARS 252.227-70XX is used by NGA to address Data Rights. Any additional terms
can be negotiated in advance of contract award. NGA does not intend to make any blanket
statement regarding data rights.
12. There seems to be an interest across the DoD in centralizing the collection and analysis
of more and more different types of tactical imagery and video. Is NGA involved in
projects trying to centralize and harmonize these types of data streams?
Answer: Theater ISR tools are separate and distinct from those used on the national side. NGA
is in close coordination with the broader DoD efforts.
Approved for public release 21-078
13. Along the lines of the previous question, are the types of data/imagery that NGA is
interested in changing? Is there more interest in street level and/or low altitude imagery
from unmanned robots and vehicles?
Answer: One of the major themes of this Industry Day is NGAs interest in any data which is
geo-referenced or services which allow NGA to make use of geo-referenced data. NGA
Commercial GEOINT Office is striving to capitalize on the explosion of non-traditional, non-
pixel based, data and services.
14. Is NGA involved in edge analytics of geospatial data which also seems to be of
increasing interest?
Answer: Discussion of Edge Analytics is outside the scope of this Industry Day.
15. Can you provide me with the small business office advocate?
Answer: Please use this email address to contact our Small Business Team:
SmallBusiness2@nga.mil
Approved for public release 21-078
Answer: NGA is interested in the remote sensing collection capabilities inherent in various
architectures, and the data and services that these architectures might deliver. In fact, the product
offerings derived from various sensors are the focus of the Commercial GEOINT Industry Day.
2. Is NGA interested in new methods of space launch?
Answer: No. Methods of space launch are the purview of several other Agencies across the
Federal Government but not NGA.
3. Will NGA be issuing more contracts as OTA contracts rather than traditional contract
vehicles?
Answer: The contracting vehicle chosen by the Government must fit the situation, the nature of
the products or services which the governments intends to procure, and of course the delivery
timelines. That said, for the Commercial GEOINT and Business Operations Group (SC), one of
the top priorities is the use of innovative contracting, which will get the needed data or service to
the user at the right time to fulfill the mission. Other Transaction Authority type contracts are
just one type of contract that NGA may consider to meet mission requirements.
4. Will NGA be further prioritizing the Technology Focus Areas that have been previously
identified?
Answer: NGA published the Agency-level Technology Focus Areas in order to expose Industry
to the challenges NGA was facing and to ask for Industry and Academias assistance in tackling
those challenges. During the Industry Day hosted by the Commercial GEOINT and Business
Operations Group (SC), you will be exposed to focus areas which build on those Agency-level
Technology Focus Areas. The intent is Industry will use the SC Focus Areas as signposts for
opportunities where commercial GEOINT data and services will be able to immediately address
mission needs in FY21.
5. What are NGAs Requirement for FY21?
Answer: FY21 will be a year of movement within NGAs Source Commercial & Business
Operations Group (SC). Below is simply a sampling of the requirements that NGA/SC will be
exploring in FY21.
NGA will see a major shift to non-traditional GEOINT. By this NGA means we are going to be
looking at the Commercial Marketplace for more non-pixel (think non-imagery) based GEOINT
data and derived analytical services. NGAs objective is to leverage every source of geospatial
information available to inform and provide context for our products and services. NGA looks
for innovative, non-traditional sources that provide new methods of discovering and describing
objects and activities not obtainable through traditional imagery-derived data alone. Within the
Commercial Marketplace, pixels and imagery will always be important and NGA will use pixel-
based data to fill in the gaps which remain in our understanding of a problem after non-
Approved for public release 21-078
traditional data and services are applied. The opportunity space created by commercial non-
traditional services allows us to augment our analytics with a wider variety of analysis-ready
information.
NGA has a strong demand for innovative Commercial Services to provide high pedigree
products which analysts can verify, use, and fuse right out of the box. These Commercial
Services will use both traditional and non-traditional data sources in order to answer the
Agencys toughest questions.
We see a need for commercially produced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning-derived
data to feed our various models reducing workload on analysis and increasing mission value.
NGA requires a commercial service as a means of managing what amounts to virtual
constellations, which provide constant streams of non-traditional and traditional geo-referenced
data on activities, objects, and events.
NGA has a requirement to use commercial data and services to augment our production capacity
for describing the significance and nominal activity levels at various global military and
economic facilities.
NGA has a requirement to use commercial data and services to provide spatially referenced
aggregate statistics about land use, population distribution, and collective identities.
NGA as a requirement to use commercial data and services to monitor specific topics or areas of
interest globally to stay abreast of emerging issues, develop patterns of life, and generate
predictive intelligence.
We see a need for commercially produced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning-derived
data to feed our various models, reducing workload on analysis and increasing mission value.
6. Why did the government cancel the Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA),
47QTCA19A000B, the Earth Observation Solutions BPA?
Answer: GSA and NGA agreed to not renew the Earth Observation Solutions Blanket Purchase
Agreement, and let it expire due to a lack of purchases made on the BPA.
7. What role will IGAPP play in NGA's acquisition strategy?
Answer: As with all programs and associated contracts, the needs of the Government will
determine what contract type and what program if any will be used.
8. NGA has implied in the past that the procurement of analytical services is challenging
due to a difficulty in evaluating those services against other competing services and the
inability to evaluate how well a service may perform - the results when the services does not
Approved for public release 21-078
identify what it intended to identify (either a lack of whatever the services is intended to
identify, or just a poorly developed service). Can NGA discuss its strategy to mitigate this?
Answer: NGA believes this question is asking whether NGA has a strategy for evaluating
commercial analytical services. NGA/SC has an ongoing process to engage with industry, a
portion of which is the evaluation of data and services. That process allows NGA to gain insight
into industry capabilities and services. At the time of procurements, NGA is able to use the
expertise gained in these assessments and other activities to bring subject matter experts to bear
in evaluating competing services.
9. Is NGA still considering using pilots and short contracting efforts to evaluate
capabilities? If so, how is NGA moving to quickly and efficiently transition successful
efforts to the appropriate organizations for operational use? Please speak to the acquisition
process after successful execution.
Answer: Discovery remains an important aspect of NGAs knowledge growth. NGA might use a
short term contract, a pilot, an assessment through bailment agreement, or several other
approaches. The government has, and will continue to, tailor the right approach to the need,
budget, and outcome. Because of this, the follow-on acquisition approach will also vary. At
industry day you will hear about focus areas that will serve as signposts for enduring needs. The
intent of this Industry Day is to help industry consider their own approaches in regards to FY21
competitions and beyond.
10. What does NGA believe are the greatest drivers in analytical services - for example, is
NGA looking to augment the analytical workforce, to drive efficiency into processes, to
parse through vast amount of data, to better leverage OSINT, etc.?
Answer: NGA is looking for the following: Augmenting our capacity to meet the information
needs of warfighters, the Intelligence Community, and policymakers with the delivery of quality
assured finished analytic products; improving the efficiency and quality of our analytic
production with structured observations of activity and objects, produced with automated
methods; improving the efficiency and quality of our analysis with access to structured data from
open or publicly available sources.
11. Does the NGA seek unlimited data rights on all the results expected from commercial
analytic services?
Answer: DFARS 252.227-70XX is used by NGA to address Data Rights. Any additional terms
can be negotiated in advance of contract award. NGA does not intend to make any blanket
statement regarding data rights.
12. There seems to be an interest across the DoD in centralizing the collection and analysis
of more and more different types of tactical imagery and video. Is NGA involved in
projects trying to centralize and harmonize these types of data streams?
Answer: Theater ISR tools are separate and distinct from those used on the national side. NGA
is in close coordination with the broader DoD efforts.
Approved for public release 21-078
13. Along the lines of the previous question, are the types of data/imagery that NGA is
interested in changing? Is there more interest in street level and/or low altitude imagery
from unmanned robots and vehicles?
Answer: One of the major themes of this Industry Day is NGAs interest in any data which is
geo-referenced or services which allow NGA to make use of geo-referenced data. NGA
Commercial GEOINT Office is striving to capitalize on the explosion of non-traditional, non-
pixel based, data and services.
14. Is NGA involved in edge analytics of geospatial data which also seems to be of
increasing interest?
Answer: Discussion of Edge Analytics is outside the scope of this Industry Day.
15. Can you provide me with the small business office advocate?
Answer: Please use this email address to contact our Small Business Team:
SmallBusiness2@nga.mil
Approved for public release 21-078
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