Tony Frazier on Maxar’s Use of Commercial Tech to Support National Security Missions

Tony Frazier, executive vice president of global field operations at Maxar Technologies and a four-time Wash100 awardee, said the company uses commercial technology advancements to help the U.S. government manage national security operations and address various threats from near peer competitors, the ongoing global health crisis and extreme weather events.

“The acceleration of these threats is placing incredible stress on our national security community,” he said in a video recording of his remarks at the Intelligence and National Security Summit. “The U.S. National Defense Strategy outlined steps we’re taking to respond through modernization, acquisition reform and partnerships.”

Frazier discussed how the company leverages advances in sensors, computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning and other tech areas to respond to challenges outlined in the NDS. 

“Over the past five years, Maxar has invested over a billion dollars to harness these enabling technologies to support current and emerging requirements, to see activity at global scale, to deliver sensor data to users in near real time and to automatically extract information from data to drive decisions," he said in the video recording posted Monday.

He cited the company’s support to national security efforts in the past 20 years, including the collection of 90 percent of satellite imagery used to develop Foundation GEOINT for the U.S. government and assistance to the U.S. Army One World Terrain program, which seeks to create 3D representation of the global battlefield to support interactive mission training rehearsal.

Frazier also highlighted the planned 2021 launch of WorldView Legion optical imaging satellites and the company’s acquisition of 3D data and analytics company Vricon in June as part of efforts to advance growth initiatives in Earth intelligence and 3D technology markets.