Review Leads to Upheaval in Spy Satellite Programs
By DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: September 30, 2005
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 portion of the project, involving satellites with powerful electronic 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 at all 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 from satellites to human spying efforts. The review by Mr. Negroponte, who took over in April as the director of national intelligence, suggests some willingness to call for major changes in multibillion-dollar programs that had escaped critical scrutiny....
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/30/politics/30satellite.html?hp&ex=1128052800&en=55a3523affd18bc8&ei=5094&partner=homepage 
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
