WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is on the verge of awarding a multiyear contract estimated at $3 billion for commercial data and analytics services to monitor potential threats across the Indo-Pacific region, a focal point of global geopolitics and a priority theater for the Defense Department.
The program, known as the Long-Range Enterprise Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Activity (LEIA), seeks to obtain a broad spectrum of commercial data and advanced AI-driven analytics, integrating information from ground, air and space platforms.
The LEIA contract is expected to be awarded later this year. This is a full and open competition and several companies are expected to compete for the award.
The program is coordinated by Special Operations Command Pacific, which supports U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM).
The size of the contract reflects the U.S. military’s growing demand for commercial data sources such as imagery satellites and AI-based analytics to track and respond to potential threats. In the LEIA solicitation, U.S. INDOPACOM emphasized commanders’ needs for timely space and intelligence capabilities to maintain situational awareness in the region.
The military's appetite for AI-powered data analytics stems from the The challenge of information overloadas government agencies increasingly have access to data, but not necessarily information. The U.S. Space Force, in response to these needs, initiated a pilot program called Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Tracking (TacSRT) designed to leverage commercial space capabilities to provide rapid intelligence and analysis to military commanders. The program uses a web-based interface called the Global Data Marketplace to advertise and award short-term surveillance, reconnaissance, and tracking contracts with commercial vendors.
The TacSRT program has already supported several U.S. combatant command operations in response to earthquakes in Morocco and Japan, floods in Libya, and wildfires in South America.
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