House Intel Committee Publishes White Paper on Buying Spy Satellites

Zach Rausnitz

August 5, 2014

House Intelligence Committee declassifies report on intelligence satellite cost-savings

The U.S. intelligence community could save billions of dollars in satellite costs without compromising capabilities, according to a report from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

While the report is classified, the committee did publish an unclassified white paper (pdf) that summarizes the findings of the report.

The National Reconnaissance Office purchases intelligence satellites at a faster pace than it needs to in order to merely satisfy its mission needs—but it does that on purpose, to make sure that the satellite production industry remains stable.

However, the committee’s report “concludes that those concerns are not fully justified and result in the excess purchase of satellites at taxpayer expense,” the white paper says.

The committee recommended that the NRO start including multiple “paces” when soliciting proposals for satellite acquisitions.

Under the plan, the NRO could acquire satellites when it actually needs them without concerning itself about sustaining the industrial base. Even though the agency wouldn’t necessarily purchase satellites according to that pace, it would be able to see how expensive satellites could actually become if the agency didn’t buy an excess amount.

That would help the agency scrutinize its assumptions about the need to stabilize the industrial base, the white paper says.

Elsewhere in the white paper, the committee notes that those assumptions are especially risky because the intelligence community receives less oversight than unclassified federal acquisition programs. Additionally, most major satellite contracts are sole source, so the agency doesn’t often glean insights from competition between contractors.

"We must always be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and take a hard look at the way we purchase very expensive satellites systems," said Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), respectively the chairman and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, in a statement.

The classified report, delivered to the NRO on July 31, was produced by the committee after reviewing satellite acquisition practices for more than a year. The committee unanimously signed off on the report.

For more:

- download the white paper (pdf)