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Ukraine and Imagery Intelligence

In August 2023 The Economist magazine published an article claiming that the U.S./ NATO was providing Ukraine with intelligence, mostly collected by spy satellites, to help launch drone attacks deep inside Russia. That the West has been assisting Kiev in attacks doesn’t come as a surprise.

Satellite imagery had been used to support Ukraine since before Russia's invasion. The images have helped keep Ukrainian civilians and forces connected and have been used by global news media to document the conflict.The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) monitored events in Ukraine and shared intelligence with partner nations. The NGA collects, analyzes, and distributes satellite imagery in support of U.S. national security.

Commercial satellite imagery services have complemented government space capabilities in Ukraine. These services enable unclassified global sharing and greatly increase coverage. Satellites are equipped with sensors that detect visible light, infrared light, and microwave radiation to create high-resolution images.

The Pentagon announced a $1.2 billion security assistance package for Ukraine that included funding for commercial satellite imagery services. The list of capabilities put out by the Department of Defense did not specify which company or companies would provide the satellite imagery services, or how much of the funding would be allotted for that. Notably, the capabilities included in the new package will be procured from industry using Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funds.

The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), launched as an experiment in 2015, DIU is now a proven business model for prototyping and acquiring leading-edge technology. The threat matrix the United States faced is significantly more diverse than in previous eras. Former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter foresaw this in 2015 when he established the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). While the Department of Defense (DoD) continues to develop offensive and defensive capabilities around conventional military platforms, dual-use emerging technologies are changing the nature of warfare. This is evident today in Ukraine, where commercial satellite imagery, autonomous drones, communication tools, and social media are being democratized and used in new ways in the name of national defense.

Since February 2022, countless images and videos have surfaced on social media and in the press depicting Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. In particular, commercial remote sensing companies, such as BlackSky, Capella, and Planet Labs, are providing satellite images of Russian military activities in Ukraine, generating an unprecedented level of visibility and driving accountability. These companies — each of which have received prior prototyping agreements with DIU to develop and demonstrate their ability to supplement existing constellations of U.S. intelligence satellites — are part of a network of commercial companies that are meeting an ever-growing industry demand for overhead imagery.

By 2030, it is estimated that there will be 1,000 commercial remote sensing systems for every government satellite orbiting the Earth. On the ground, commercial small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) vendors have been providing sUAS equipment, training, and technical support that are helping Ukrainians with Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR), humanitarian, and other efforts. This is making a difference by enabling Ukrainian commanders to have greater situational awareness, improved sensor-to-shooter capabilities, and faster maneuver in complex environments.