RECONNAISSANCE

Satellites

Articles

L - Q

 

Lackman, William. "Future Direction for the United States Imagery System." American Intelligence Journal 14, no. 3 (Autum-Winter 1993-1994): 31-34.

At a time of constrained resources and high tension in the management of the U.S. space reconaissance program, a central figure in that program tries to put the best face forward.

Laurenzo, Ron. "NRO Chief Sees Industry Helping Out with Satellite Spy Duties." Defense Week 21, no. 6 (7 Feb. 2000): 3 ff.

Lipton, Eric. "Administration Trying for Spy Satellites Again." New York Times, 18 Sep. 2008. [http://www.nytimes.com]

A "$1.7 billion project approved last week" seeks "to have two new satellites in orbit by 2012." The government's last spy satellite effort,the so-called Future Imagery Architecture, was canceled in 2005 before a single satellite was launched, at a cost of "at least $4 billion." There is already debate over whether the new program, the Broad Area Space-Based Imagery Collector, " should be building two new satellites of its own or acquiring images from private companies."

Loeb, Vernon. "Hobbyists Track Spies in the Sky." Washington Post, 20 Feb. 1999, A1. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]

"As Operation Desert Fox unfolded in December and the Pentagon released reconnaissance photographs taken from space of destroyed Iraqi targets, retired CIA scientist Allen Thomson sat at his home computer in El Paso and produced a schedule of classified U.S. satellite overpasses of Baghdad from the hour the bombing began.

"Thomson was not trying to alert Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, but to underscore a point he has been making for years about supersecret U.S. spy satellites: They aren't so secret anymore."

Loeb, Vernon. "Spy Satellite Effort Viewed as Lagging: Defense, Intelligence Officials Seek More Money." Washington Post, 11 Dec. 2002, A31. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]

"A secret program for developing the next generation of spy satellites [called Future Imagery Architecture (FIA)] is underfunded and behind schedule and could leave the CIA and Pentagon with gaps in satellite coverage critical to the war on terrorism if the program cannot be restructured, defense and intelligence officials said."

Mayo, Reid D. "Conceiving the World's First Signals Intelligence Satellite." In Beyond Expectations -- Building an American National Reconnaissance Capability: Recollections of the Pioneers and Founders of National Reconnaissance, ed. Robert A. McDonald, 129-138. Bethesda, MD: American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 2002.

McDonald, Robert A. "Corona, Argon, and Lanyard: A Revolution for US Overhead Reconnaissance." In Corona -- Between the Earth and the Sun: The First NRO Reconnaissance Eye in Space, ed. Robert A. McDonald, 61-74. Bethesda, MD: American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 1997.

McDonald, Robert A. "Corona: A Success for Space Reconnaissance, a Look into the Cold War, and a Revolution for Intelligence." Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 61, no. 6 (Jun. 1995): 689-720.

Merle, Renae. "Boeing Satellite Project Criticized: Funding, Delays Concern Panel." Washington Post, 6 Sep. 2003, E1. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]

A report by the Pentagon's Defense Science Board says that Boeing's Future Imagery Architecture (FIA) "project to develop the next generation of spy satellites has been significantly underfunded and has suffered from technical shortcomings." The program "can be 'mitigated sufficiently to permit" it to continue, "but was 'not executable' as it existed before recent changes."

Spokesman Art Haubold said that the NRO "has already addressed many of the concerns raised by the report.... About $4 billion was added to the program in January to initiate changes, including new deadlines and more testing of technology....

"Another program spotlighted by the report, Lockheed Martin's Space Based Infrared-High satellite program [SBIRS], which will act as an early warning system for incoming missiles, 'could be considered a case study for how not to execute a space program,' the report said. The program lacks experienced personnel and has counted on unproven approaches because they promised cost savings, the report said."

See Defense Science Board/Air Force Scientific Advisory Board Joint Task Force, Acquisition of National Security Space Programs (Washington, DC: Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, May 2003).

Mintz, John. "Lockheed Martin Works to Save Its Older Spies in the Skies." Washington Post, 29 Nov. 1995, D1.

Morrocco, John D. "CIA Slashing Satellite Network." Aviation Week and Space Technology, 16 Jan. 1995, 64.

Pasztor, Andy. "Spy Agencies Outdo Air Force In Getting Satellite Funding." Wall Street Journal, 7 Dec. 2007. [http://online.wsj.com]

"U.S. intelligence agencies are quietly spending about $7.5 billion to build a pair of older-technology spy satellites, people familiar with the matter said, at a time when more-technically-advanced military satellite projects are faltering because of budget cuts.... The Air Force has had difficulty moving advanced projects, and the new spending highlights how control of such projects is moving away from the Air Force and toward intelligence officials."

Pearson-Mackie, Nancy. "The Need to Know: The Proliferation of Space-Based Surveillance." Arms Control 12, no. 1 (May 1991): 94-122.

Pike, Christopher Anson. "CANYON, RHYOLITE, and AQUACADE: U.S. Signals Intelligence Satellites in the 1970s." Spaceflight 37, no. 11 (Nov. 1995): 381-383.

Pincus, Walter. "Panel Set Up by CIA Recommends Building Smaller, Cheaper Spy Satellites." Washington Post, 30 Jun. 1996, A11.

Pincus, Walter. "Smaller Spy Satellites May Give U.S. Stealth Capability Over Trouble Spots." Washington Post, 1 Feb. 1998, A9.

Some new generation satellites, beginning in 2003, "may be equipped with stealth technology so they cannot be tracked by radar, several sources said. But other sources doubt a way has been found to prevent detection of the satellites."

Pincus, Walter. "Spy Satellites Are Under Scrutiny: Negroponte to Advise Congress on Funding New Systems." Washington Post, 16 Aug. 2005, A11. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]

According to congressional and administration sources, DNI John D. Negroponte "is reviewing two multibillion-dollar spy satellite programs,... and will make recommendations on their future to House and Senate intelligence committees" in September 2005. Sources said that one of the systems under scrutiny "is a classified program to build the next generation of stealth satellites." The other program receiving attention "is the new generation of non-stealth space vehicles -- using optical, radar, listening and infrared-red capabilities -- known collectively as the Future Imagery Architecture (FIA)."

Priest, Dana. "New Spy Satellite Debated on Hill: Some Question Price and Need." Washington Post, 11 Dec. 2004, A1. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]

According to U.S. officials, "[t]he United States is building a new generation of spy satellites designed to orbit undetected, in a highly classified program that has provoked opposition in closed congressional sessions where lawmakers have questioned its necessity and rapidly escalating price.... The previously undisclosed effort has almost doubled in projected cost -- from $5 billion to nearly $9.5 billion, officials said. The National Reconnaissance Office, which manages spy satellite programs, has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the program, officials said.... The satellite in question would be the third and final version in a series of spacecraft funded under a classified program once known as Misty, officials said."

Prados, John. "High-Flying Spies." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Sep. 1992, 11-12.

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