BlackSky Awarded Monitoring Contract From U.S. Air Force to Track Global COVID-19 Impact on Military Readiness

U.S. Air Force to utilize BlackSky’s artificial intelligence and machine learning analytics platform to maintain force readiness and secure the supply chain

HERNDON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BlackSky, a leading provider of global monitoring services powered by geospatial intelligence and advanced AI/ML analysis, has been awarded a U.S. Air Force contract through AFWERX and the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) to monitor the efficacy of COVID-19 mitigation efforts worldwide.

The contract calls for BlackSky to monitor overseas U.S. military bases and help maintain secure supply chains using its Spectra artificial intelligence and machine learning platform. Near-real time global monitoring capabilities will track the spread of COVID-19 to ensure the protection of deployed personnel, and secure critical nodes of the supply chain.

BlackSky’s Spectra platform will leverage state-of-the-art image exploitation techniques to automatically analyze anomalies and monitor the application of social distancing. These measurements will then be correlated against the reported infection numbers coming from local governments and integrated into the latest epidemiology models to predict the risk to deployed U.S. Air Force personnel and the surrounding communities.

“BlackSky is giving decision makers the crucial information they need to protect U.S. interests at home and overseas amid today’s rapidly shifting threat landscape,” said Brian O’Toole, CEO of BlackSky. “By combining global geospatial data sources with satellite remote sensing data, Spectra provides a near-real time look at the evolving pandemic and provides critical insights to inform national security.”

The major economies of the world have experienced the impact of the rapid onset of the coronavirus. BlackSky will help critical components of the defense industrial supply chain recover by monitoring logistics depots, maintenance facilities, petroleum reserves, and airport facilities. BlackSky will provide alerts and notifications when changes in activity level or other anomalies are observed.

“It is imperative to have transparency into the status of critical nodes of the supply chain for planning purposes. With BlackSky’s global monitoring capability, the U.S. Air Force can maintain a watchful eye over its supply chain,” said O’Toole. “Spectra will provide the Air Force an easy to use outbreak monitoring and decision support tool. The platform will help us combat the spread of COVID-19, manage risk and ensure the protection of personnel around the globe.”

About BlackSky LLC

BlackSky is a global monitoring company. We monitor activities and facilities worldwide by harnessing the world’s emerging sensor networks and leveraging our own satellite constellation. We process millions of observations daily from space, air, environmental sensors, asset tracking sensors, Industrial IoT, and Internet-enabled narrative sources. BlackSky’s on-demand swarm of satellites can image a location multiple times throughout the day. We monitor for pattern-of-life anomalies to produce alerts and enhance situational awareness. Our monitoring service is powered by cutting-edge compute techniques including machine learning, artificial intelligence, computer vision, and natural language processing. BlackSky’s global monitoring is available via a simple subscription and requires no IT infrastructure or setup. For more information visit www.blacksky.com.