A bipartisan group of six senators and an equal number of representatives has sent a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warning against cuts to a commercial satellite program designed to save government money and augment access to global imagery.
The Nov. 22 letter said the National Geospacial-Intelligence Agency’s (NGA) EnhancedView program was critical to meet imagery needs for the U.S. government and its allies to support coalition operations, an industrial base that creates hi-tech jobs, and to maintain the U.S. industry’s position as the premier worldwide commercial satellite imagery provider.
The program allows the government to purchase the unclassified imagery without having to shoulder the cost of building the satellites. EnhancedView (EV) is a 10-year program valued at $7.3 billion.
The members said that the two companies awarded contracts under EnhancedView–GeoEye [GEOY] and DigitalGlobe [DGI]–are meeting their performance requirements in the public-private partnership.
“Despite these successes, it is our understanding that under budget pressures, the Department of Defense is considering major reductions that could potentially result in severe damage to the EV program,” the letter said. “These potential impacts are greater given the investments both satellite imagery providers have already made to create new satellites, ground infrastructure, and operational capability to meet NGA’s needs for improved collection capability, faster timelines, and increased security.”
The letter noted the two companies have already invested a combined amount of more than $1 billion to build satellites and other infrastructure for the services contract, and that a move by the government to back-out would discourage companies from engaging in similar deals.
“A change to the EnhancedView baseline could mean a lasting loss of credibility for the U.S. government when it comes to any similar arrangement in the future, whether it is for commercial space launch, telecommunications, or any other area that requires industry to make up-front investments against a long-term need,” the letter said.
Walter Scott, the founder and chief technical officer of DigitalGlobe, said in a recent interview that EV brings significant value to the government because it acquires imagery without “having to pay anywhere close to the full cost.”
“We spread the cost over multiple customers,” Scott said.
Under EV in August, DigitalGlobe received a $3.5-billion contract and GeoEye received one for $3.8 billion. Annual options over the 10-year period must be exercised to attain the full amounts.
Clapper, speaking to the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) symposium in October, said he expected the intelligence community to suffer cuts in the “double-digit” range over the next 10 years but will do what it can to continue to support the commercial satellite industry.
“The issue, of course, will be to what extent and will we be able to support it as robustly in the past?” he said. “And that remains to be seen.”
The congressional letter was signed by senators Mark Udall (D-Colo.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.). On the House side, it was signed by representatives James Moran (D-Va.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) and Tom Reed (R-N.Y.).
DigitalGlobe is headquartered in Colorado, while GeoEye is based in Virginia.