Spysat acquisition woes.

Note the part about potential loss of the existing imaging satellites,
some of which have been in orbit for well over a decade.

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http://www.dodbuzz.com/2008/08/22/bi...atellite-feud/


Biting Memo Details Intel, DoD Satellite Feud
By Colin Clark Friday, August 22nd, 2008 3:41 pm
Posted in Intelligence, Policy, Space

A multi-billion dollar program known as BASIC is the flashpoint in the
battle for acquisition supremacy between the Defense Department and
the intelligence community.

In a remarkably frank and biting Aug. 15 memo, the head of Pentagon
acquisition, John Young, rejects plans by the Office of the Director
of National Intelligence to approve purchase of the Broad Area
Satellite Imagery Collection program. It would include one satellite,
with an option for a second satellite. Parellel to the program is
authority and money to buy up to $1.5 billion in satellite imagery
over the next six years.

The three-page memo details just what is wrong, in Young’s eyes, with
the approach of the Office of Director of National Intelligence
(ODNI).

“The BASIC program could be underway if every decision was not
constantly being re-litigated and if key stakeholders would
collaboratively work the issues,” wrote Young, undersecretary of
Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.

A congressional aide familiar with the program was exasperated. “The
thing that has slowed everything down is this conflict between ODNI
and ATL, so it’s hard for them to blame anyone but themselves,” the
aide said. The delays in approving the program are especially ironic
since both the intelligence community and the Pentagon have said
repeatedly that they must approve this program as quickly as possible.
They have not spoken publicly about the cause of the need for speed,
but several sources have said the country faces a possible imagery gap
as National Reconnaissance Office satellites age and eventually fail.

“I’ve been told for a year now that this was schedule driven but now
they come out with this,” the congressional aide said.

Perhaps the most central issue - who controls the program — is
addressed head on. Young says that the space elements of BASIC “will
be fully funded within the DoD budget.” That means his office is
“fully accountable for the contract and expenditure of these funds.”
But a memo from the ODNI proposes splitting the acquisition authority.
Young, in classic Pentagon language, “non-concurs” with this. DoDBuzz
has not seen the ODNI memo but it is referred to Young’s memo.

Young says the two offices, who work together on a range of classified
satellite and other acquisition projects, “should clearly document the
requirements associated with the government purchase and operation of
two satellites.” Experts have repeatedly criticized both the
intelligence community and the Pentagon for doing a poor job of
writing and limiting requirements. Young’s memo makes clear that the
intelligence side at least had not yet detailed its requirements. So-
called requirements creep is one of the main causes of cost increases
and schedule delays.

Young says that the ODNI also goofed on another basic issue. The ODNI
memo “provides woefully insufficient time to coordinate, allocating
only one half business day on an issue which is complex, is
interagency, and has been presented at separate times to the Deputies
and Principals of the respective organizations to make decisions.”
Interagency issues are notoriously difficult to resolve, involving as
they do deep-seated cultural issues and questions of fiscal and
operational control.

A former senior intelligence official sided with Young on the memo.
The former official, who had already seen the memo, said that “John
Young is objecting (quite properly in my view) and demonstrating that
there are numerous issues yet to be resolved. What’s particularly
interesting is that he seems to be reopening some issues that had
previously appeared to be closed.”

That is a reference to a remarkable memo signed March 21 by Defense
Secretary Robert Gates and Director of National Intelligence Mike
McConnell agreeing that the DNI would have acquisition authority over
any program that received 51 percent of its funding from the
intelligence community’s National Intelligence Program pool.
Previously, the Defense Department exercised acquisition power if even
one dollar of its money funded an intelligence system. The two sides
also agreed that programs receiving a majority of funding from the
Military Intelligence Program pool would be run by the Pentagon but
the DNI would have a seat on the body overseeing Pentagon buys known
as the Defense Acquisition Board.

The fissure between the two sides over authority was summarized by the
congressional aide: “A couple of months ago there seemed to be this
move to joint decisions. Now they seem to be going the other way.” The
aide predicted that Gates and McConnell would have to meet to resolve
the impasse. That elicited some frustration that two senior
administration officials would have to take time out from running the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as overseeing global
intelligence operations, to settle what amounts to a really nasty food
fight between two bureaucracies. “I just think this is getting out of
hand,” the aide said.

The battle over BASIC first burst into public view last March when I
broke the story that McConnell and Gates had agreed to strip the
National Reconnaissance Office, builder and operator of the nation’s
spy satellites, of its authority to make acquisition milestone
decisions about BASIC. That decision occurred in part because the NRO
looked likely to contradict administration policy that the military
and intelligence community rely whenever possible on commercial
satellites for satellite imagery.

Could they be under covert attack by the Chinese? A successful covert
attack would undermine moral in the US intelligence community and
would benefit the Chinese.

On Aug 26, 12:37*am, wrote:
Could they be under covert attack by the Chinese? *A successful covert
attack would undermine moral in the US intelligence community and
would benefit the Chinese.

Actually I think it is more like the White supremacists watching black-
on-black violence while doing nothing and enjoying the whole thing.