The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) believes commercial satellite imaging capabilities could satisfy a large majority of military requirements.
The SASC fiscal year 2013 conference report said a survey by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, building on previous assessments by the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, found that “enhanced commercial satellites could meet, or exceed, the overwhelming majority of electro-optical imaging requirements at less cost and risk and that such an approach would provide greater resilience and survivability and a broader, competitive industrial base.”
The SASC also disagreed with a conclusion by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence that a government acquisition of a different design could better accomplish, and at somewhat lesser cost, the government’s need for satellite imagery, the report said.
As a result, the SASC recommends a provision in the upper chamber’s version of the FY ’13 defense authorization bill that would require the defense secretary and the director of national intelligence to sustain the commercial imagery collection capacity planned under the EnhancedView program approved in the FY ’12 Defense Authorization Act, the report said.
The provision would also require the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to conduct comprehensive analysis of imagery requirements for the Defense Department and the potential role of commercial-class imagery in meeting the needs of the government, the report said.
The provision would require these studies be complete in time to inform decisions on the FY ’14 budget and the FY ’15 budget request, the report said. The provision would authorize $125 million to sustain the current level of commercial imagery collection through the first quarter of FY ’13.
The provision would also require the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) director to examine whether the executive branch’s proposed commercial imagery actions are consistent with presidential policy directives, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and statute, all of which use similar language regarding the use of commercial products and capabilities, the report says. The president’s proposed commercial imagery actions call for spending less money on commercial imagery.
The report says the president’s most recent National Space Policy directs the executive branch to purchase and use commercial space capabilities as much as possible when they satisfy government requirements and modify commercial space capabilities and services when existing capabilities don’t fully meet these requirements and the potential modification represents a more cost-effective and timely acquisition approach for the government.
GeoEye [GEOY] and DigitalGlobe [DGI] are the two main providers of commercial satellite imagery to the federal government. Both companies receive a significant portion of their revenues from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), in particular the EnhancedView program that provides satellite imagery to the agency from each company’s respective satellites. EnhancedView, a 10-year program valued at $7.3 billion, is expected to be hit with substantial budget cuts next year (Defense Daily, May 8).