Harris lands big contracts totaling $1.5 billion provide 'geospatial' data for agency

Harris Corp. on Tuesday announced its award of three contracts, totaling $1.5 billion, to provide the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency with what's called "geospatial data services" for up to 10 years.

Geospatial data is refers to the observation of the ground surface with its geographical information such as latitude and longitude. Geospatial information generally is used for creating Geographic Information System, or GIS.

Harris, headquartered in Melbourne, will create, manage and disseminate high-quality geospatial-intelligence information for the U.S. intelligence community and military worldwide.

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The contracts cover all three areas of NGA’s "JANUS" program — geography, imagery and elevation. The JANUS program will contribute to and maintain comprehensive, geospatially accurate databases of the world that can be accessed quickly as intelligence, operational and crisis needs arise.

The NGA delivers geospatial intelligence that to policymakers, warfighters, intelligence professionals and first responders. The agency says "Anyone who sails a U.S. ship, flies a U.S. aircraft, makes national policy decisions, fights wars, locates targets, responds to natural disasters, or even navigates with a cellphone relies on NGA."

Harris will use its predictive analytics technology to continuously evaluate the health of NGA databases and to guide the acquisition, creation and integration of all forms of geospatial data. Harris’ cloud-based tools will validate and correct the data – pinpointing locations that require updates.

"Winning JANUS continues our long-standing legacy of providing high-quality, responsive GEOINT and analytics to the intelligence and military communities," Bill Gattle, president, Harris Space and Intelligence Systems, said in a statement. “Our analytics technology provides NGA with fit-for-purpose data, reduced production costs and cloud-based access to geospatial products and content."

Price is business editor at FLORIDA TODAY.

Contact Price at 321-242-3658

or wprice@floridatoday.com.

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