Veridian nets Air Force deal for satellite imagery

Veridian Corp. won a contract worth up to $37.7 million to develop satellite image processing systems in support of the Air Force's Eagle Vision program, company officials announced Monday.

The Eagle Vision systems are a network of transportable ground stations that can be quickly deployed and configured to downlink and process commercial satellite data.

The contract, awarded by the Air Force's Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., includes a fixed-price base award of $7.4 million and options to supply additional systems.

The contract also includes provisions for Veridian to supply training and additional support for the Eagle Vision program for six years.

The contract builds upon previous work for the Eagle Vision program performed by Veridian, Arlington, Va., which has worked on in the program since it was developed during the early 1990s.

"Eagle Vision provides an innovative and cost-effective capability for making commercial satellite imagery available to U.S. and allied forces," said Bob Pattishall, president of Veridian's Systems Division.

Eagle Vision provides a platform to downlink and process commercial satellite imagery into "geocoded" electronic images for use by Air Force mission planners and intelligence analysts. Geocoded images, which are used in automated mission planning systems, enable planners to more effectively use the capabilities of modern aircraft.

Military planners and intelligence analysts can use commercial satellite imagery in combination with imagery from military satellites. Because commercial imagery is produced from unclassified sources, it can be more widely distributed to both U.S. armed forces and coalition partners.

Veridian provides information-based systems, integrated solutions and services, specializing in mission-critical national security programs for the intelligence community, the Department of Defense and government agencies involved in homeland security. The company has annual revenue of about $1 billion and employs more than 7,300 people.