Satellite intelligence can give countries an information advantage

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

1. 4:10

   because we're seeing a lot of countries needing our data really quickly. So let's go into that security piece of it a little bit. Take Ukraine. We helped to see the troops build up on the border of Ukraine before the invasion happened the full-scale invasion now actually we help provide data to Ukraine to help them monitor threats well in advance of reaching their borders to try and stop those threats to help them defend their country. I can't get into all of the details but it's really at the core an information advantage. They're facing a conventional disadvantage. Russia has more troops, more tanks, more missiles, more planes. But Ukraine has two distinct advantages.

2. 4:59

   One is they really care about their country and they don't want it invaded. And the second is they have information advantage and information is power. And they've been extremely active at using latest technology, drones, satellites, AI to get advantage. So we've helped them as best we can with their incredible innovation, they've used and seen uses of our data in incredible ways. Now, other countries are going to Ukraine and going, what's going on here? And they see that most of their satellite data comes from planet and they go, wow, okay, we need that too. If Russia might invade us, what about China and Taiwan? What about whatever? We also work with the US Navy.

3. 5:41

   The US Navy uses us to monitor all of the South China Sea, 13 million square kilometers. So slightly bigger than the United States area of ocean and they're looking for illegal fishing activities, illegal like North Korean vessels going against oil embargoes, Chinese activities that shouldn't be where they are, building islands or what have you. They monitor that and they provide that to their allies in the region like Philippines so that they can all have a common understanding of where the threats are. Admiral Paparo, also in that same area, who runs Indopaycom, the command of the United States out in the Pacific, and he uses our data to monitor China for threats across China, but actually industrial facilities that might supply them. Why? Because he wants to get early warning of any threat. So for example, if China are going to attack Taiwan,

4. 6:38

   he wants to get early warning of that. Can he get not just a day warning but a week or a few months? If we can give them that sort of warning then that can help them prepare, deter, help diplomatic options and other things. The point is information is power and by giving it to these countries we can help them defuse tensions and make it more likely we don't need to go to war, right? So that's our mission on the security side and now it's got so big especially because people have seen what's happened in Ukraine, seeing what Admiral Papiro is doing in China and realize, wow, we at Planet