Planet SkySat imagery of Diamond 8 delivering oil at Nampo Oil Terminal in North Korea © 2018, Planet Labs Inc. All Rights Reserved. Analysis: C4ADS, RUSI.

Planet Labs will provide high-resolution satellite data to support the NATO Communications and Information Agency‘s (NCIA) Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space (APSS) program under a new contract the company announced Monday.

The data, sourced from Planet’s SkySat system, will be used to track and analyze foreign military capabilities and activities, monitor military infrastructure, and assess threats. Commercially provided satellite data has increasingly been used to fill missing intelligence gaps for agencies like NCIA, which established its APSS program in February 2023 to enhance space-based intelligence sharing between global allies using new technologies such as space data, cloud solutions, and AI.

Planet has 18 SkySats in orbit. The company says the system currently has the most frequent intraday revisit capability on the market, capturing actionable insights between five to seven times per day. Planet also claims that it can deliver SkySat’s high-resolution images and data to customers in less than three hours from capture.

“Space is critical for NATO, from supporting the navigation and tracking of forces, detecting missile launches, maintaining situational awareness, to ensuring effective command and control,” NCIA’s Head of Space Technology Adoption and Resilience said in the contract announcement. “Planet’s sub-daily tasking brings new capabilities which enable monitoring of large areas of NATO interest, bolstering our technological advantage, and fulfilling our mission of preserving peace and security for nearly one billion people.”

Financial details of the contract were not disclosed.