Satellogic Expands Partnership with IDT and U.S. Office of Naval Research for "Slingshot" Program Phases II and III
Satellogic, Inc. (NASDAQ: SATL), a vertically integrated geospatial company delivering high-resolution Earth Observation (EO) at unprecedented scale and economics, have announced a new subcontract agreement with Innovative Defense Technologies (IDT) to support the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR). This agreement extends the ongoing Slingshot program, an R&D initiative alongside commercial partner GRVTY, focused on accelerated maritime intelligence and low-latency orbital processing.
Following the success of Slingshot I, the new phases represent a significant expansion of the program’s scale and technical sophistication:
Slingshot II (Summer 2026): Provides a temporal extension of service for two Inter-Satellite Link (ISL)-equipped NewSat Mark V satellites.
Slingshot III (2027): Adds six next-generation NewSat Mark VI satellites to the constellation, bringing the total dedicated fleet to eight ISL-ready assets.
Redefining Speed for National Security
The Slingshot program is designed to solve one of the most pressing challenges in orbital reconnaissance: latency. Traditionally, the time between capturing an image and receiving an actionable alert on the ground can take hours.
By utilizing Satellogic’s ISL-capable satellites and edge computing payloads, the ONR can perform real-time image processing, object classification, and tracking of interests directly in orbit. This significantly reduces the data-to-decision timeline, providing the Navy, Marine Corps, and other US Agencies with critical advantages in maritime domain awareness.
“The Slingshot program is a testament to how commercial satellite innovation can meet the rigorous demands of national security,” said Luciano Giesso, VP of Space Systems. “By integrating our next-generation Mark VI satellites, we are delivering unique optical EO capabilities that drastically improve ground segment latency, a feat that remains rare in our industry.”