Page 1 GAO-23-106042 Commercial Satellite Imagery
December 8, 2022
Congressional Committees
National Security Space: Overview of Contracts for Commercial Satellite Imagery
Commercial remote sensing satellites and the data they produce have transformed the way the
U.S. approaches critical national security issues, among other things. Based on recent trends,
the commercial space industry is expected to grow significantly in the coming years and
therefore may be able to address more of the Intelligence Community’s (IC) and Department of
Defense’s (DOD) imagery needs. As a starting point, the federal government should have good
visibility into its current spending and contracts for commercial satellite imagery.
The House Appropriations Committee report that accompanied a bill for the Fiscal Year 2022
DOD appropriations act, included a provision for us to report on contracts related to commercial
satellite imagery across the national security community.
1
In its report, the committee expressed
concern that the federal government may not be adequately leveraging its buying power to
ensure the best value and may not be minimizing the redundancy and duplication of commercial
imagery purchases across the government. Subsequently, in July 2022, we issued a classified
report on how the DOD and the IC acquire commercial satellite imagery and analytic services
that use remote sensing data.
2
In September 2022, we issued an unclassified version of this
report.
3
The classified and unclassified versions of the report address most of the reporting
provisions for us in House Report 117-88.
The purpose of this correspondence is to provide supplemental information to address the
provision in House Report 117-88 not covered in our July 2022 (GAO-22-105072C) or
1
H.R. Rep. No. 117-88, at 320-321 (2021). The provision does not define national security community, but on the
next page of this document we describe how we identified relevant federal departments and agencies.
2
GAO, National Security Space: Actions Needed to Better Use Commercial Satellite Imagery and Analytics, GAO-22-
105072C (Washington, D.C.: July 22, 2022). (SECRET//NOFORN) The scope of our review included the National
Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the Defense Intelligence Agency
(DIA), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Office of the Secretary of Defense, five military
services, nearly all combatant commands, and commercial vendors that supply satellite imagery and analytic services
to the federal government.
3
GAO, National Security Space: Actions Needed to Better Use Commercial Satellite Imagery and Analytics, GAO-22-
106106 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 7, 2022). This unclassified version omitted classified content in GAO-22-105072C
but retained the same objectives, methodology, and recommendations. We made two recommendations to the
Secretary of Defense and two recommendations to the Director of National Intelligence. DOD concurred with the
recommendations for the Secretary to (1) establish clear roles and responsibilities across IC and DOD stakeholders
for the acquisition of commercial satellite imagery and (2) assess various approaches to determine the most effective
ones at incorporating and scaling emerging commercial satellite capabilities. ODNI did not state if it concurred with
the two recommendations to the Director to (1) develop specific performance goals and measures that would support
progress toward maximizing the use of commercial imagery and (2) develop guidance to establish specific roles and
responsibilities for commercial analytic services that use remote sensing data.
