A pointer to this article in the April's issue of EE Times guided me to the site were this article was written: www.eet.com/news/98/1002news/truce.
I believe that times are clearly changing from an emphasis in military to commercial applications' space era...with the grudging acceptance of the old generals and the shaping of new perceptions by the future generals in a clearly global era of commerce.
Perhaps most of you read it, but for those who didn't, here it is'
By Loring Wirbel
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The U.S. intelligence community is
slowly realizing that it must collaborate with the newly
privatized space communications and space imaging companies,
rather than threaten them with litigation over perceived national
security violations. At the recent Space Symposium forum,
representatives from government and industry agreed there is little
to gain from holding private companies to unrealistic standards.
In the early to mid-1990s, the National Reconnaissance Office and
National Security Agency were uncertain as to how to react to the
flurry of new companies promoting low-earth-orbit (LEO)
communication systems like Iridium and Globalstar, or those
planning imaging systems like Spot Image Corp., using
photographic resolutions below 2 meters. Imaging companies were
subjected to veiled threats by the NRO, while the U.S. Space
Command insisted it had the right to take over LEO
communications systems in the event of a national emergency.
In one sense, a belligerent government attitude still prevails. At last
week's conference, the Space Command released its Long Range Plan
document to implement "Vision for 2020," in which it insisted that
the United States must achieve absolute dominance in space and
must use private resources when necessary to augment national
intelligence-collection systems. But even the glossy Space Command
document talked of partnerships with industry, keeping the threats
to a minimum.
Gen. Howell Estes, commander in chief of the U.S. Space Command,
said that the Air Force needs corporation partnerships because it is
being expected to spend more on computing even as defense budgets go
down. He also said cooperation with other nations will reduce the
need for weapons in space, because "the more nations cooperate, the
less the world will need to have a means of enforcement in space."
The new collaborative attitude was reflected in the very structure
of the conference. Intelligence representatives and industry
executives sat on common panels, rather than being segregated into
separate application panels as in previous Space Symposia. Keith
Hall, director of the NRO, took the unusual step of sitting with
NASA director Daniel Goldin on a common panel on
government-industry convergence.
Hall said that partnerships with corporations can help to reduce
costs in four areas of spy satellites: the satellite buses, systems
integration, the launch vehicles and the ground-station eq uipment.
To make it easier for industry to understand classified needs, Hall
said, the government is "breaking down the secrecy barriers" by
declassifying information on the second generation of photo
satellites and the first generation of signals-intelligence satellites.
One factor that has shifted the terms of debate has been private
industry's willingness to provide imaging products to the military.
For example, Spot, once considered a veritable "enemy" by the
Space Command and NRO, is providing images to the Air Force
under a program called Eagle Vision. Col. James G. Clark, executive
assistant for modeling and simulation to the Air Force assistant vice
chief of staff, said that $4.6 million already had been allocated to
the Air Force's use of Spot images prior to the Gulf War, but after
Spot images were used during the Desert Storm bombing campaign,
the Air Force decided to move to a dedicated ground station for Spot
images. This was augmented in 1996 with a transportable upgrade
of the ground st ation capable of receiving both Spot and Landsat
images.
The Eagle Vision program has spawned several successors, including
National Eagle, Renaissance View and Joint Eagle 2. Clark said the
next step would be to add other commercial imaging services to the
mix as the roster of available commercial systems grows from 17 to
37. Clark said that with the multiple-source Eagle Vision Future,
"what we're trying to do is create the world's largest cable-TV
company, dedicated to receiving and integrating commercial
images."
Ted Nanz, president of Spot, said the Eagle Vision effort has
proven that commercial imaging companies can work with the
Department of Defense. Any attempt to suggest that these
companies cannot offer 1-meter-resolution pictures, however,
"would be a case of the old story about closing the barn door after
the horse had escaped," Nanz said.
Orbital Sciences Corp. also is going for a mixed market with its
OrbImage commercial program. The Air Force has agreed to put its
new W arfighter hyperspectral imager on board the OrbView-4
satellite.
This model is being applied to communication services as well. On
March 16, the Defense Department initiated its long-anticipated
Global Broadcast Service, using transponders on the Navy's UHF
Follow-On satellites to provide instantaneous distribution of
everything from CNN broadcasts to highly classified NSA
bulletins to troops in the field. GBS transmitters later will be
integrated on commercial communication satellites. Maj. Gen. John
L. Woodward, director of command and control systems at NORAD,
said that GBS is an element in a larger program, MILSATCOM, to
combine military and commercial satellite resources.
Woodward said that "spectrum management must be based on
war-fighting requirements and commercial needs" and suggested
that communication companies and defense agencies make joint
proposals for spectrum allocation to the World Administrative
Radio Council. But when asked during a question session whether
this meant the D efense Department would "keep its hand on the
switch" for LEO communication satellites, Woodward hedged by
saying, "We really don't know. There are so many tough issues on
protection of information and security of information involved."
Peter Cowhey, formerly head of the FCC's International Office,
suggested that certain stipulations the intelligence agencies had set
on foreign companies' ownership of U.S. wire-line phone companies
"could be applied to issues of space-based communication
companies."
One source close to Iridium said off the record that this does not
mean that Iridium could become a virtual spy system for the NRO in
the event of war. However, he added, "Iridium performs some space
relay duties similar to the NRO's Satellite Data System. The real
question is whether, and under what circumstances, the NRO might
'borrow' Iridium as a backup relay system for intelligence info that
might go over GBS or another network."
Several speakers said that the government must make the rules of
the game much clearer before imaging and communication companies
feel comfortable about its ultimate intentions. Gilbert Rye,
president of Orbital Imaging Corp., said that "the government is
still somewhat schizophrenic about our industry." Space imaging is
still a fledgling industry, launched by President Clinton's March
1994 executive order allowing private space-imaging companies to
exist, Rye said.
The problem is not that the imaging industry is looking for
subsidization, Rye emphasized. Rather, companies like OrbImage
and Earth Watch Inc. want the government to be a more reliable
customer of imaging data. Also, companies want to be assured that
the future declassification of NRO archived images does not hurt
their business. And they want to make sure that future NRO
systems, like the long-rumored "8X," take into account the existence
of commercial imaging satellite systems. Rye insisted that the DoD
has no right to decide if foreign nationals can sit on the boards of
imaging companies, s ince such restraints are not put on space
communication companies.
Oddly enough, the strongest cry for an environment of open data
came from Jeffrey K. Harris, the former NRO director who was
forced to resign in early 1996 over a budget scandal. Harris now
heads Denver-based Space Imaging Inc. and is a strong proponent of
allowing information tools to develop to their fullest without
artificial restrictions. He said that after many years at the CIA
and NRO, he recognizes that restraints on technology cannot be
enforced, and said that "we have to put our arms around the
technology and realize commercial systems are complementary to
national security systems."
There is still a good deal of controversy over how many of the
systems that NRO worries about will prove to be important. With
the failure in late March of the Early Bird satellite from Earth
Watch, caused by a faulty Global Positioning System unit that
drained power from the satellite, Harris' Space Imaging is poised
to be the first compa ny to launch a 1-meter-resolution commercial
imaging satellite.
Donovan Hicks, chief executive of Earth Watch, said that the
failure had been a crushing disappointment to shareholders of his
company and the market in general. He said Earth Watch is
canceling all future programs for the 3-meter Early Bird, instead
moving directly to the 1-meter Quick Bird, built by Ball Aerospace.
Hicks reminded the audience that the market is still uncertain,
since not one commercial company has shown 1-meter resolution yet.
Nanz of Spot went further, saying that "if you believe
high-resolution imagery will simply sell itself, you believe in the
tooth fairy. The applications must be marketed effectively to a
variety of new customers who aren't aware these tools exist."
On the communications side, doubts still exist in both voiceband and
broadband systems, though the milestones reached this month are
silencing skeptics. Over the past two weeks, Motorola's Space and
Systems Technology Group has launched 14 more Iridium satellites
in three launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.; Baikonur,
Kazakhstan; and Taiyuan, China, bringing the total number of
Iridium satellites fielded to 63.
The Globalstar partners, meanwhile, performed a double-whammy
early in the week. Globalstar LP awarded a $353 million phone
manufacturing contract to Ericsson OMC Ltd. (Stockholm, Sweden),
Qualcomm Inc. (San Diego) and Telital (Trieste, Italy). Meanwhile,
Globalstar partner Loral Space & Communications Ltd. announced
its development of the CyberStar broadband satellite system, using
Telstar Ku-band satellites and new Ka-band satellites. Adaptec
Inc. will develop satellite-to-PC adapter cards for Loral. The new
system will compete with announced broadband systems on the
drawing board, such as Motorola's Celestri, and the Teledesic LLC
financed by Bill Gates and Craig McCaw.
Donald Cromer, president of Hughes Space and Communications
Co., made a convincing case at the Space Symposium that
broadband data marke ts in LEO communications would grow to a far
larger size than voiceband markets. But Teledesic program manager
John Wolf still faced some heavy skepticism at the conference from
an audience convinced that Teledesic had received some lucky
breaks from the FCC and the NRO. |
