Aviation Week & Space Technology December 21, 2001
FIA Outline Takes Shape
By Michael A. Dornheim
Boeing won big when it beat out incumbent Lockheed Martin to build the next generation of recce satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office, but there is so much work and technical risk involved that there may still be roles for Lockheed Martin and other companies to play in the near term.
The NRO is set to spend some $ 6 billion on satellites alone through 2010 under the Future Imagery Architecture (FIA) system, with billions more later for upgrades and replacements. Beyond the highly classified satellites themselves will be the ground equipment and communications systems needed to handle their intelligence ''take.'' Raytheon won the contract for this ground infrastructure. And the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) is spending $ 2.7 billion for the user system to task FIA satellites, and process and disseminate the pictures (AW&ST Aug. 7, 2000, p. 62). The makeup of the FIA constellation has been chosen but remains secret, an NRO official said. The current configuration is believed to include three Advanced KH-11 optical sensor spacecraft and two Lacrosse radar sensor spacecraft, says Jeffrey T. Richelson. He is author of The Wizards of Langley, covering the CIA's Science and Technology Directorate.
INITIAL FIA CONCEPTS envisioned satellites that were 50-75% lighter than today's, in greater quantity that would give more frequent overflight of an area. But FIA appears to have become more of an evolution of the current system, says John Pike, a longtime observer of the classified satellite world and founder of GlobalSecurity.org. Radar and optical satellites will remain separate, but Boeing plans to use a common bus to carry both types of sensors, Pike said.
The government wants performance in several areas to be ''a little bit better'' than current spacecraft, says Jeffrey K. Harris, president of Lockheed Martin's Missiles and Space Operations. Harris was NRO director from 1994-96. Resolution is probably limited by atmospheric distortion to several inches, so there is not much point in improving the optics beyond that. Richelson says the best resolution he has heard of was 2.5 in. with a film-return satellite.
However, an advance could be made if the spacecraft achieved the same resolution from a higher orbit. Up there, the dwell time over target would be longer and the field of regard would be greater, which could offset the longer orbital period to give improved revisit time. But keeping the same atmospheric-limited resolution on the ground would require greater angular resolution from the optics, and the laws of physics say that needs a bigger primary mirror. New technology would be applied to keep the mirror and spacecraft weight under control, as well as to be able to build the mirror and tune its shape in orbit to the necessary fraction of a wavelength.
Geospatial accuracy -- the ability to tell precisely what the latitude and longitude of image features are so they can be targeted -- is pretty good now, but ''there's always a push to get a little bit better,'' Harris said. He notes the Army likes to have its maps accurate to about 1 meter.
FIA will be collecting more imagery. Richelson has heard the Advanced KH-11 can take 12 pictures per minute. ''In the past, we've been limited by the ability to collect data, but slowly it's shifted to 'how do you handle all the data?''' Harris said.
Boeing won FIA in part because of an ''innovative'' design. It's not clear how that design is turning out in reality (AW&ST Oct. 8, p. 66). ''Large programs are tough and difficult,'' said Lockheed Martin's Harris. ''It's hard to ramp up to do something that the company [Boeing] hasn't done before. They have had trouble getting their innovative designs to work as well in reality as they did in the viewgraphs. There may be some weight growth and reduction in performance. The NRO and Congress have a dialogue so they don't lose capability and can plan the budget.''
BOEING AND NRO OFFICIALS say FIA is currently completing preliminary design on schedule, within cost and meeting critical performance commitments.
If there's a slip in FIA that threatens loss of coverage by the aging system, options could include building more of the current spacecraft, Harris says. Another option would be to accelerate development of the Block 2 version of Space Imaging's Ikonos commercial optical imager, which is made by Lockheed Martin. Block 2 has a government license for 0.5-meter resolution, ''which would meet a very large percentage of the area coverage requirements,'' Harris says. ''But don't wait too long: there is a 3.5-4-year lead on a Block 2 system.'' First launch is expected in late 2004 or early 2005.
NRO IS OVERSEEING the FIA contract to build a specific system, but NIMA is devising what Harris calls ''big FIA,'' the architecture under which a variety of systems will operate. Part of ''big FIA'' is the use of commercial imagery from satellites like Ikonos, which NIMA is about to sign up for its third month of service in the Afghanistan war. The main use is medium-resolution for map-making, but it also provides data that can be shared broadly in a motley anti-terror coalition that includes countries such as Syria.
Reconnaissance business opportunities in the presence of FIA include space-based radar (SBR) for the Air Force, to perform the role now played by Joint-STARS and AWACS airborne systems. SBR would provide moving-target indicator (MTI) and imagery data. ''SBR is a timing/affordability question,'' Harris noted. There also is ''excitement'' about long-dwell imaging from higher orbits. ''It's not a part of FIA, but of 'big FIA.''' It could fly in 2010-11 and be merged into FIA. Government demand could also justify building more commercial satellites.
Copyright 2001 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
