Review Leads to Upheaval in Spy Satellite Programs

The idea that we need more human intelligence resources requires more
money, suggesting that an increase in fit, male employees of the State
and Commerce departments clad in dark suits, white shirts and
'conservative' ties will be impending. The new intelligence structure
seems to be very unstealthy, requiring public notices as to their new
attitudes and applications.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/30/politics/30satellite.html?hp&ex=1128139200&en=2750048618a8cf7a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

September 30, 2005
Review Leads to Upheaval in Spy Satellite Programs
By DOUGLAS JEHL

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 - A high-level review led by John D. Negroponte,
the new intelligence director, is stirring a major upheaval within the
country's spy satellite programs, beginning with an overhaul of a $15
billion program plagued by delays and cost overruns.

In a terse announcement last week, the National Reconnaissance Office,
responsible for developing and launching the devices, said only that a
Boeing Company contract to provide the next generation of
reconnaissance satellites, known as the Future Imagery Architecture,
was being "restructured."

But government officials and outside experts said Mr. Negroponte had
ordered that Boeing stop work on a significant part of the project,
involving satellites with powerful cameras, under a plan to shift the
mission to Lockheed Martin, Boeing's chief competitor.

Under Mr. Negroponte's plan, the remainder of the program, involving
satellites that use radar for surveillance, would remain with Boeing.
But it is not clear whether the proposal goes far enough to answer
Congressional demands for deep cuts in spending on reconnaissance
satellite programs that cost taxpayers billions of dollars and whose
value is being questioned by Democrats and Republicans alike.

Members of Congress are calling for major shifts in intelligence
spending, by transferring spending to human spying efforts from
satellites. The review by Mr. Negroponte, who took over in April as the
director of national intelligence, suggests willingness to call for
major changes in multibillion-dollar programs that had escaped critical
scrutiny.

The details of the satellite programs remain highly classified, and Mr.
Negroponte's office and the staff of the Congressional Intelligence
Committees have generally refused to discuss the new wrangling over the
program. But Representative Jane Harman of California, the ranking
Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, issued a statement last
week saying that the decision by Mr. Negroponte "would be
heartbreaking" for Boeing workers in her home district, "who have made
maximum effort to build a hugely complex system."

A second showdown is expected in coming weeks over a different
satellite program, a $9.5 billion stealth program that the Senate
Intelligence Committee has tried to kill for the last three years, on
the ground that its costs far outweigh the benefits it would deliver.

Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, the ranking Democrat
on the Senate committee, said last December that he would seek a closed
session of the Senate this year to review an expensive technical
program if Senate appropriators continued to recommend that it be
financed. Government officials said at the time that Mr. Rockefeller
was referring to the stealth satellite, which could operate only in
clear weather and during daylight.

Despite Mr. Rockefeller's threat, Senate appropriators are believed to
have included money for the satellite in a classified annex to a
defense appropriations bill that is scheduled for a Senate vote in
coming days.

"There's a feeling on the Hill that there's too much redundancy and not
enough progress" in satellite programs, said Loren Thompson, a defense
expert at the Lexington Institute, a research group.

Most of the scrutiny is being focused on reconnaissance satellites,
responsible for collecting images of the earth, rather than on
eavesdropping satellites, which intercept communications. The current
generation of reconnaissance satellites is aging, but the government is
widely believed to be developing a number of replacements, including
but not limited to the $15 billion future imagery system and the $9.5
billion stealth satellite being built by Lockheed.

Some critics have questioned the need for the United States to launch
many more reconnaissance satellites, at a time when commercial
satellites already in place can provide high-resolution images. Within
an overall intelligence budget estimated at $40 billion a year, these
critics argue that the more urgent need is to add resources for human
spying.

John Pike, who operates the defense and intelligence Web site called
GlobalSecurity.org, said, "Some would say it's time to recognize that
the world has changed - that the number of intelligence questions that
can be answered with images from space is very limited."Representative
Peter Hoekstra, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the House
Intelligence Committee, expressed public concern in June about an
intelligence budget that he called "out of balance" and plagued by
"overlapping and duplicative technical programs." The classified
intelligence budget for fiscal 2006 calls for deep cuts in the future
imagery system, government officials say.

Boeing's earlier victory over Lockheed in winning the contract for this
program came as a shock within the defense industry, where Lockheed had
always been dominant in satellites. But the program has run into
increasing trouble in recent years, with technological problems sending
costs soaring well beyond the initial $10 billion project and delaying
the expected launch of new satellites.

A Boeing spokesman, Marta E. Newhart, said the company "is disappointed
with the government's decision in light of the progress the program has
demonstrated and resources the nation has invested."

A Lockheed spokesman, Thomas Jurkowsky, would say only that his company
recognized "the importance of our country's reconnaissance capability"
and stood "ready to support our government customers" when asked.

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