Article Entry
10 Jun 2009
Comments:2
Feinstein Has “Extraordinarily Serious Concern” Over New EO Satellites
Added by USGIF Category: Daily Intelligence Brief
Our friends at DOD Buzz yesterday broke the story about a battle royal between the Senate Intel Committee and the Intelligence Community over the fate of the new electro-optical satellite system that was recently approved by President Obama. Sen. Diane Feinstein, a member of the Senate Appropriation defense subcommittee, voiced the following concerns and was worried that the program would be a repeat of the the Future Imagery Architecture system. Here is her statement:
“We have extraordinarily serious concerns involving the waste of many, many dollars over a period of years and are rather determined it not happen again.”
An anonymous intelligence community source who spoke with DoD Buzz and is familiar with the technical issues rejected Feinstein’s claims:
“I think there are no real shortcuts to high performance although such claims are made. I really think you should point out that the ‘exquisite’ proposal is just the fifth updating of a system flown for 33 years.”
Read more about it here.
What do you all think about this? Is Feinstein being overly reactionary on this one? Do you agree with the comment that there is no room for short cuts to high performance?
Tags: Diane Feinstein, DoD Buzz, electro-optical satellite system, Intelligence Community, President Obama, Senate Intel Committee
If by “performance” you mean “resolution”, then there’s no getting around the need for large apertures and, probably, large and/or complex and consequently expensive satellites.
If “performance” means “usefulness”, then you have to ask to whom it’s supposed to be useful. The military seems to prefer to trade off resolution for area coverage and revisit time. The intelligence community has, traditionally, opted for resolution uber alles.
Maybe a parting of the ways is indicated, with the military getting something like the current GeoEye and DigitalGlobe satellites (which are a lot cheaper than KH-11 derivatives) and the IC sticking with the exquisite legacy design.
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