The Associated Press March 18, 2001, Sunday, BC cycle
Project led by Boeing could boost Calif aerospace industry
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
Aerospace companies are covertly recruiting engineers in Southern California to build a new generation of spy satellites for a project estimated to be worth up to $25 billion over two decades, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
Details are classified, but analysts believe the "Future Imagery Architecture" project of the National Reconnaissance Organization will create satellites that are harder to detect and can operate farther out in space than current probes.
The Federation of American Scientists recently concluded that the NRO program "will be the most expensive program in the history of the intelligence community."
The NRO announced a year ago that it had awarded the contract to Boeing Co.
The satellites will be able to take pictures of military compounds anywhere in the world - in darkness or through cloud cover - and the project is expected to form the backbone of U.S. intelligence for several decades, analysts said.
The satellites are to begin launching around 2005, NRO spokesman Art Haubold told the Times. He refused to specify the value of the contract, but described it as "a big part of our business."
John Pike, a Washington, D.C.-based military space consultant, believes the project could create 20,000 jobs in California and estimated the program's total cost at $25 billion.
The project will require 5,000 engineers, technicians and computer programmers over the next five years for initial design and development, Boeing spokesman Roger Roberts told the Times. Thousands more workers will be needed by subcontractors and for satellite assembly.
Two months ago, Boeing opened a recruitment office in the Silicon Valley to target engineers from Lockheed Martin Corp. and Internet employees who built many of the satellites now in orbit.
The other main companies involved are Raytheon Corp., Eastman Kodak Co. and telecommunications components manufacturer Harris Corp.
Analysts speculated that the project could place as many as two dozen satellites in orbit in the next 20 years, compared to the current half dozen.
"I can tell you that we plan to begin launching them around 2005," said Art Haubold, a spokesman for the NRO. "It's a multiyear effort that will provide a more capable but less costly means of filling the nation's imaging needs."
The probes will be able to revisit and take pictures of an area more frequently than the current versions. The need is driven in part by inadequacies identified during the Persian Gulf War, when military commanders complained about intelligence photos arriving late.
Satellites can now "linger" over an area about 10 minutes. U.S. officials hope to double that span with the new probes. In all, the Federation of American Scientists believes the new satellites will be able to collect eight to 20 times more images than the current system.
