RFI-191786-GEOOPS.pdf

NATO UNCLASSIFIED

NCIA/ACQ/2026/07700

Tuesday, 08 September 2026

NCIA Request for Information (RFI)

To: Industry Partners

Subject: GLOBAL GEOSPATIAL DATA SOURCES IN SUPPORT

OF OPERATIONS

RFI-191786-GEOOPS

1. The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) is conducting market research to identify qualified vendors and gather input on potential solutions to support the upcoming acquisition for Global Geospatial Data Sources in Support of Operations. To that end, we are issuing the attached Request for Information (RFI) RFI-191786-GEOOPS to solicit feedback from capable and interested industry partners.

2. This RFI is issued for planning purposes only and is not a request for bids. It is part of NCIA’s effort to ensure it has a clear understanding of the marketplace, available capabilities, and potential acquisition strategies.

3. We value your insight and invite you to:

a. Share relevant corporate capabilities and experience;

b. Provide responses to the questions in Annex A;

4. Submission instructions and additional details can be found in the enclosure to this RFI.

5. Only companies from a NATO member country can participate in or respond to this RFI

(https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/nato_countries.htm).

6. Should you have any questions or need clarification, please contact Emira Kapetanovic at RFI-191786-GEOOPS@ncia.nato.int

7. We thank you in advance for your time and input, and we look forward to engaging with you as we shape this potential acquisition.

For the Chief of Acquisition:

Emira Kapetanovic Principal Contracting Assistant

Enclosure:

• Request for Information with Annex A

• Distribution List https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/nato_countries.htm

NCIA-ACQ-1.017(07.25)

Table of Contents

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

A. Introduction B. Purpose C. Background D. Submission Instructions E. Industry Engagement (Optional) F. Disclaimer G. Use of Information Provided through Responses H. RFI Point of Contact Annex A – Requested Information

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

A. Introduction

1. The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) is conducting market research to identify potential sources and gather information regarding industry capabilities to Identify the availability and technical capability of all qualified NATO nation businesses that can provide the services described in this announcement. This Request for Information (RFI) is issued solely for informational purposes and does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Quotation (RFQ), or invitation for bid.

B. Purpose

1. The purpose of this RFI is to obtain input from industry to help inform the NCIA’s acquisition planning. Responses to this RFI will assist in refining requirements, identifying capabilities, and shaping the strategy for any future solicitation.

C. Background

1. The Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (JISR) Centre within NCIA provides full life cycle support of all assigned JISR services within NATO. In this context, the Geospatial, Meteorology and Oceanography (GeoMetOc) Branch within JISR is responsible for the Core Geographic Information System (CoreGIS) Application Service that provides both ACO customers as well as NATO Nations with a suite of geospatial data, services and products that ensure all phases of military operations are conducted on the same geospatial reference. The CoreGIS Application Service is Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) based and uses the Esri ArcGIS software product suite in a NATO-specific configuration.

2. Geospatial data typically consists of any raster (e.g. maps or imagery) and vector (e.g.

transportation, infrastructure, land cover, etc.) data that is relevant for NATO to fulfil its mission.

3. This project is specifically looking at available sources of wide area or potentially global coverage of mission specific geospatial data in support of NATO’s Operations.

D. Submission Instructions

1. Interested parties are invited to respond in accordance with the instructions below:

a. Submit responses via the email address in section H no later than 12:00 hours

Central European Time (CET) on 22 September 2026.

b. Responses should be submitted in PDF or Word format and must not exceed 15 pages, including:

i. Responses to Annex A excluding:

i. Cover page

ii. Company brochures or product literature (if included)

iii. Attachments such as past performance references

c. Use the following subject line for submission

i. “Response to RFI [RFI Number] – [Company Name]”

d. All responses should address the items listed in Annex A – Requested Information.

E. Industry Engagement (Optional)

1. The Agency may request a demonstration of the described solution. Respondents will be contacted if such a demonstration is desirable to make further arrangements.

Respondents are requested to await further instructions after their submissions and are requested not to contact directly any NCI Agency staff other than the POC identified above in Paragraph H.

2. Interactive demonstration, capabilities, functionalities will be considered as indicative and informational only and will not be considered as binding on the participant or on NATO within the context of any future acquisition.

3. If requested, companies should be willing to provide this demo free of charge to NCI

Agency.

F. Disclaimer

1. This RFI is for planning and informational purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or obligation on the part of the NCIA. The NCIA does not intend to award a contract based on responses to this RFI. Respondents are solely responsible for all costs incurred in responding to this RFI. The NCIA will consider and analyse all information received from this RFI and may use these findings to develop a future solicitation. The NCIA will consider all responses as confidential commercial information and will protect it as such.

2. NCIA reserves the right, at any time, to cancel this informal market survey, partially or in its entirety. No legal liability on the part of NCIA for payment of any sort shall arise and in no event will a cause of action lie with any prospective participant for the recovery of any costs incurred in connection with the preparation of documentation or participation in response hereto. All effort initiated or undertaken by prospective informal market survey participants shall be done considering and accepting this fact.

G. Use of Information Provided through Responses

1. Confidentiality of Responses

The NCIA may incorporate industry comments and responses, in part or in whole, into a future release of a solicitation. Should respondents include proprietary data in their responses that they do not wish to be disclosed to the public for any purpose, or used by NCIA (except for internal evaluation purposes), they must:

a. Mark the title page with the following legend:

This document includes data that shall not be disclosed outside NATO and shall not be duplicated, used, or disclosed – in whole or in part – for any purpose other than for NCIA internal evaluation purposes, unless otherwise expressly authorised by [insert company name]. This restriction does not limit the NCIA’s right to use information contained in this data without restriction if it is obtained from another source. The data subject to this restriction are contained in sheets [insert numbers or other identification of sheets]

b. Mark each sheet of data it wishes to restrict with the following legend:

Use or disclosure of data contained on this sheet is subject to the restriction on the title page of this document.

H. RFI Point of Contact

1. Emira Kapetanovic

2. RFI-191786-GEOOPS@ncia.nato.int mailto:RFI-191786-GEOOPS@ncia.nato.int

Annex A – Requested Information

Respondents are encouraged to provide the following information in their response:

A. Company Information:

i. Legal Business Name

ii. Address

iii. Website

iv. Primary Point of Contact

v. Email address

B. Technical Capability (max 300 words):

i. Summary of relevant capabilities and past performance

C. Responses to the following RFI Questions:

Question 1: Availability of operational geospatial vector data:

Does your organization sell geospatial datasets on one or more of the following themes to the stated specifications?

- Seamless soil data of ideally global or at least wide area coverage comparable with 30m resolution containing information to allow for NATO mission planning.

- Transportation data of ideally global or at least wide area coverage containing road and rail network with typical attributes and military attributes o Military Load Classification o Physical dimensions including road width, vertical and horizontal clearance, surface type, subgrade strength, support infrastructure to rest, refuel, maintenance, etc.

o Bridge span details, under-clearance, structural health of infrastructure, temporary bridging, etc.

o Rail network and infrastructure like loading gauges with info on maximum height and width, railhead facilities like loading ramps, cranes, staging equipment, wagon specs, traffic density, etc.

o Network attribution to calculate bypass routes o Multi-modal network information across air-rail-road-maritime transport.

- Land cover and specifically forest characteristics data including physical tree type and dimensions like stem spacing, stem diameter to define override or bypass calculations, branch height and canopy closure

Please state for each

- Data Source, lineage and data currency including update cycle

- Technical specifications

- Production lead time

- Potential relevance to NATO’s mission planning

- Coverage including diagram

- Format and Compatibility with CoreGIS

- Production workflow, quality assurance and validation procedures

- Available Metadata

- Attribute schema and data model o Feature classes/layers provided o Associated attributes per feature class o Classification system per attributes (i.e. domains) o Sample schema (if available)

- Price for the 2 stated licensing considerations:

o For use within the NATO Enterprise o For use within the NATO Enterprise and additionally for NATO Nations and

Non-NATO Entities (NNEs) in support of any North Atlantic Council (NAC) approved activity only.

Question 2: Innovations or alternatives to traditional geospatial data listed in Question 1:

Please state innovative approaches, alternative data sources or new methods for geospatial datasets which would provide NATO a comparable outcome.

Question 3: Questions or Concerns:

Please state any

- Risks, concerns, or barriers

- Suggestions for risk mitigation or enhancing competition

Distribution List

1. NATO Delegation (Attn: Infrastructure Adviser)

1. Albania 12. Greece 23. Poland

2. Belgium 13. Hungary 24. Portugal

3. Bulgaria 14. Iceland 25. Romania

4. Canada 15. Italy 26. Slovakia

5. Croatia 16. Latvia 27. Slovenia

6. Czechia 17. Lithuania 28. Spain

7. Denmark 18. Luxembourg 29. Sweden

8. Estonia 19. Montenegro 30. Türkiye

9. Finland 20. Netherlands 31. United Kingdom

10. France 21. North Macedonia 32. United States

11. Germany 22. Norway

2. All NATEXs