Woes of the NRO: part the next

I keep wondering when someone will remember the Bill Mauldin Solution
to the NRO problem:
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/fredbrown/mauldinjeep.jpg

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http://www.space.com/spacenews/space...mary.html#BM_1

NRO LOSES DECISION AUTHORITY ON BASIC IMAGING SATELLITE PROGRAM
By COLIN CLARK
Space News Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- Senior U.S. defense and intelligence leaders have
stripped the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) of its authority to
make key decisions on a planned imaging satellite procurement and are
poised to do the same for others managed by the spy satellite agency,
according to current and former intelligence officials.

The step was taken amid concern that the NRO, which has suffered
numerous setbacks in recent years including program cancellations and
on-orbit failures, was in danger of running afoul of White House
policy with a program dubbed BASIC, or Broad Area Satellite Imagery
Collection. Questions have been raised about how BASIC, still in the
planning stages, squares with a provision in the policy directing the
military and intelligence community to rely on commercial satellites
for general mapping purposes.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department
of Defense, which oversee the NRO and which took the action on BASIC,
are now considering whether to relieve the agency of its so-called
milestone decision authorities for all programs, sources said.
According to the current intelligence official, this action is several
weeks away. The term milestone decision authorities refers to the
authority to move a program from one phase in the development process
to the next, such as from design to full scale-development.

Vanee Vines, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence, stressed March 7 that milestone decision authorities for
all intelligence agencies are reviewed on an annual basis. "Each year
we conduct a review of the [milestone decision authorities], program
by program. That process is still ongoing and the final joint
decisions have not yet been made," she said.

NRO spokesman Rick Oborn declined comment. NRO Director Scott Large,
testifying before the House Armed Services strategic forces
subcommittee for the first time in that capacity March 4, did not
discuss BASIC or the NRO's recent performance on satellite programs.

The intelligence source said that if the decision is made to strip the
NRO of its milestone decision authorities, the responsibility will
revert to two offices: the deputy director of national intelligence
for acquisition, Alden Munson; and the undersecretary of defense for
acquisition, technology and logistics, John Young. These offices
already have this authority formally but traditionally have delegated
it to the NRO, sources explained.

The current and former intelligence officials said the recent
developments concerning the NRO's procurement authority reflect
shattered confidence in the spy satellite agency, whose past
technological accomplishments, though mostly classified, are
legendary.

"Is the NRO getting its job done? No, it's not," said one former
senior intelligence official. The current intelligence official ticked
off some of the NRO's recent failings. "There have been two
cancellations over the last decade that were externally forced. Three
other programs went on orbit and didn't perform the way they were
supposed to. Another program is on the cancellation list that they
have been having problems with for years. They have put us in the
position where we face potential capability gaps," the official said.
"The NRO has lost their edge in doing the things that once made them
great and the status quo can no longer exist."

The decision to strip the NRO of decision authority for BASIC came
from a so-called joint assessment team that included intelligence and
military officials, the intelligence official said. "The NRO was
trying to force this decision through and lock in their choice about
how to handle Tier 2 reconnaissance and we told them to back off," the
official said.

Tier 2 refers to medium-level capabilities that commercial imaging
satellite operators like DigitalGlobe and GeoEye believe they are
capable of providing. Both companies have multiyear contracts to
provide imagery to the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
for military and intelligence users.

Proceeding with BASIC, according to the intelligence official,
probably would have violated the 2003 U.S. Commercial Remote Sensing
Policy, which says the country will "rely to the maximum practical
extent on U.S. commercial remote sensing space capabilities for
filling imagery and geospatial needs for military, intelligence,
foreign policy, homeland security, and civil users." It also might
have breached the 2006 National Space Policy, which directs the
federal government to "use U.S. commercial space capabilities to the
maximum practical extent, consistent with national security."

Congress is closely watching how the NRO and other agencies plan to
provide geospatial information to the military and intelligence
community. In a Feb 13 letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates,
Sens. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) and Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) pressed for "an
increased role for the U.S. commercial imagery data providers" as the
department develops its next-generation imagery architecture. This
expanded role would help the United States maintain its global
leadership in space, said the letter, a copy of which was obtained by
Space News. "We have a clear national security interest in maintaining
this leadership role and staying far out front of foreign competition
in the commercial data industry," they wrote.

DigitalGlobe is based in Boulder, Colo.; GeoEye is based in Dulles,
Va., but has major operations in Denver. Mark Brender, a spokesman for
GeoEye, which plans to launch its most capable imaging satellite in
late August, declined to comment. Chuck Herring, a spokesman for
DigitalGlobe, whose newest satellite launched in September, could not
be reached for comment by press time March 7.