Closing the Intelligence Gap for the U.S. Marine Corps

Planeteer Spotlight Series: Diego Balcazar & the U.S. Marine Corps 

The United States Marine Corps is one the seven branches of the United States Armed Forces and acts as the premier crisis response force for the country. With over 177,000 active personnel today, the Marine Corps is committed to advancing the country’s peace and security initiatives. 

During this year’s Planet Explore conference, we were honored to have Chief Warrant Officer 3 Andrew D. Kremmel from the 5th Marine Regiment share how Planet’s global, high cadence satellite imagery is improving their ability to sense and observe. In today’s complex modern warfare environment, military operations often take place in remote or hard-to-reach locations, making it difficult to gather timely and accurate intelligence using traditional means. Planet’s satellite data delivers a layer of situational awareness that can provide friendly forces better freedom of movement, as well as increase the military’s ability to expedite tactical early warnings, enhance response coordination, mitigate risks, minimize damages, and save lives.

“[Planet data] gives analysts unparalleled opportunities to discover and monitor activity, and provides near real-time answers to critical questions concerning the estimate of current force dispositions, potential adversary activities, future actions, and anticipated reactions,” said Kremmel.  

Diego Balcazar, an Account Executive at Planet Federal and retired Marine, along with Sales Engineer Sam St. Lifer, supports CWO3 Kremmel and the Marines to understand their mission requirements, support the implementation and utilization of Planet’s solutions, and improve and expand their current and future capabilities in support of their multitude of global missions centered around the protection of our citizens, humanitarian response efforts, and more. “My experience in the Marine Corps, not only during deployments with tactical units but supporting strategic level command, allows me to deeply understand the unique conditions experienced by decision makers and analysts at all levels,” said Diego. “Planet’s data and services can provide up-to-date, actionable intelligence that can help ensure timely and effective decision making for The Marines.” 

To learn more about Planet’s work with the Marine Corps, watch this video.