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White House to weigh DoD-intelligence community satellite divorce
April 2nd, 2009 | National Space Symposium | Posted by Ben Iannotta
NRO Director Scott Large said his agency awaits direction from the Pentagon and director of national intelligence.
The Pentagon and intelligence community have presented the Obama administration with a proposal that would set defense and intelligence officials on largely separate courses in construction of next-generation electro-optical reconnaissance satellites, said current and former intelligence and defense officials.
The intelligence community would fund construction of so-called “exquisite” satellites able to discern small objects on the ground. The Pentagon would build “commercial”-class satellites for wide-area surveillance, said an official familiar with the proposal.
Another person familiar with the proposal said the new acquisition strategy would provide a “pathway” for defense and intelligence officials to share imagery from their separate satellites.
The proposal culminates an independent, “EO way ahead review” led by Paul Kaminiski, a former Clinton administration Pentagon acquisition chief, who gathered former defense and intelligence officials and asked them to speak their minds.
Details of the proposal are spelled out in a classified agreement signed several days ago by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, officials said. Gates and Blair forwarded their proposal to White House officials the next day.
Scott Large, director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) which manages construction of spy satellites, declined to elaborate on the proposal.
“I’m not going to get into anything going on with the way forward because it’s in play with the administration and the Hill,” he said. “We’re waiting to hear back from [Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair about] what they want us to go do.”
The proposal appeared to be the first, tangible result of a proposal by Air Force Gen. C. Robert Kehler, commander of Air Force Space Command, to allow intelligence and military officials to fund construction of their own reconnaissance satellites. Congress and White House officials have generally tried to force the Pentagon and the intelligence agencies to share reconnaissance gathered by the NRO’s spy satellites.
Kehler has said, “One size does not fit all.”
Tags: Blair, Gates, NRO, way ahead reveiw