In case you haven’t been paying attention, Vantor has been having quite the week across the pond.
In the space of a week, the spatial intelligence company has announced a partnership with Rheinmetall to create “a European 3D information platform for spatial intelligence,” and teamed up with British prime BAE Systems to manufacture its 20 cm-class Vantor Vantage imaging satellites.
While BAE and Vantor go way back, the Rheinmetall team-up is new—and sounds like it’s part of a big push by Vantor into Europe.
“Together with Rheinmetall, we will bring Vantor’s full Tensorglobe platform into a European-controlled solution that can task, fuse, produce, analyze, and deploy spatial intelligence in sovereign environments,” Vantor CEO Dan Smoot said in a statement on the Rheinmetall partnership. “This is how European nations can maintain operational control while delivering intelligence directly to the warfighter when it matters most.”
What did you get done in the last seven days?
Eye in the sky: If you read Tectonic (or Payload, for that matter), you’ll know about Vantor. The company (which rebranded from Maxar Intelligence last year) is a huge deal in the geospatial intelligence world. (Remember those images from early in the Ukraine war?)
- For those who are a little confused on all of the names: Vantor is what used to be Maxar Intelligence. The space hardware part of the business is now called Lanteris.
- The company operates one of the largest Earth observation satellite networks—including a ton of WorldView satellites inherited from its predecessor, Maxar.
- But it’s not just satellites—the company combines satellite imagery, AI, and software to help governments and commercial customers understand what’s happening on the ground.
- Its flagship software platform, Tensorglobe, fuses data from satellites, drones, aircraft, and ground sensors into a single common operating picture.
- They also use all that geospatial data for 3D mapping—their Raptor Alternative Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (AltPNT) software helps automated systems navigate without GPS.
Euro trip: The core of the team-up with Rheinmetall is Tensorglobe—but make it European.
- The two companies will work as a joint venture in Germany to “deliver a unified spatial intelligence capability that can serve as the core multi-domain intelligence platform for armed forces across Europe.”
- Despite Vantor being, well, a US company, the two companies say the “partnership will support Germany’s sovereign defence requirements as well as existing and emerging European intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) programs.” Good news, especially considering Germany wants to up its intelligence capabilities.
- The joint capability (which the two companies will build in Europe) will “process and fuse data … [including] satellite-based information from a variety of sensors, such as Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), electro-optical and infrared, including both sovereign and commercial imagery, as well as airborne sensors.
- Vantor’s geospatial intelligence platform will be built into Rheinmetall C2 systems—used by countries including Germany, the UK, and (reportedly) Ukraine. Big ups.
School bus: And as for that BAE team-up—while the two companies have worked together on Raptor (and lots of other stuff) before, the core of this team-up is Vantor’s Vantage imaging satellites.
- The satellite was unveiled back in April as part of the company’s expansion beyond its existing WorldView constellation.
- It’s, like, super high-res: It’s got 20 cm-class resolution—meaning it can distinguish objects roughly 20 centimeters (about 8 inches) across. When it enters into operations (expected before the end of the decade), Vantor says this will be the highest-resolution commercial Earth imagery available on orbit.
- The satellites are designed pretty specifically for detailed intelligence collection—20 cm covers even pretty small weapons, after all.
- Vantage will be paired with Pulse, a lower-resolution (40 cm-class) constellation built for persistent monitoring with revisits as often as every 15 minutes.
- BAE will build the satellite buses (pretty much exactly what it sounds like) based on its Evolve spacecraft platform.
- The two companies have already worked together on a bunch of satellites, including three WorldViews.
- Worth noting that while BAE is a UK prime, its Evolve program is based out of Colorado (where Vantor is also headquartered).
“Vantage represents the next generation of exquisite imaging from space, and BAE Systems’ proven track record of manufacturing excellence, mission execution, and deep experience supporting world-class imaging programs makes them the right partner to help us build what will be the most capable commercial imaging satellites on orbit,” Matt Jenkins, chief space systems officer at Vantor, said in a statement.