Aerospace Daily NIMA Gets 13-Fold Budget Boost For Commercial Imagery
November 21, 2002
The National Imagery and Mapping Agency's fiscal 2003 budget increases funding to buy commercial satellite imagery "by a factor of 13-fold or so," NIMA Director James Clapper said Nov. 20.
Clapper, who spoke at a Defense News Media Group Conference's ISR Integration Conference in Reston, Va., also said he hopes to sustain that increase in FY '04.
Clapper declined to translate the commercial imagery funding into dollar figures. But John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, which analyzes defense and intelligence issues, told The DAILY that the increase in FY '03 probably amounts to several hundred million dollars.
Before FY '03, which began Oct. 1, NIMA had been spending a few tens of millions of dollars a year on commercial imagery, Pike said.
NIMA, at the prodding of Congress and Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet, is buying more commercial imagery to help ease the demand on government satellites, as well as to take advantage of the unique features of commercial satellites.
In addition, commercial imagery can be more easily shared with the planned Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and with foreign allies because it is unclassified. DHS will have "huge implications" for intelligence agencies because the intelligence needs for homeland security "are every bit as voracious" as those of U.S. military commanders based overseas, Clapper said.
The main beneficiaries of the funding increase probably will be Space Imaging and Digital Globe, the primary players in commercial satellite imagery, Pike said. Both companies have been hoping to make sales to the U.S. government a significant part of their revenue.
"Their ship has finally come in," Pike said. "Their whole business model has been predicated on being able to sell a lot of this stuff to the U.S. government."
Now that commercial satellite imagery "can be a major input" for NIMA, the agency has to work on incorporating that imagery into its normal business process, Clapper said.
Clapper also said that he has become reluctant to exercise shutter control, in which the government restricts access to commercial satellite images for national security reasons. He expressed concern that shutter control can cause a chilling effect on U.S. industry and investors.
"I have become, frankly, a proponent of what I call laissez faire to the maximum extent possible," he said. "I think we should let the commercial industry proceed, essentially run free, do what it can, sell [to whom] it can, and we'll just have to adjust accordingly."
-- Marc Selinger
© Copyright 2002 / Aerospace Daily
