A Military Project Back From The Dead

Poof! Black Sat Program Is Baaack! -- DOD Buzz

Reports of the death of a crucial satellite system known as BASIC have been grossly exaggerated.

The Associated Press and other media outlets reported 10 days ago that $1 billion for BASIC was cut by the House and Senate Appropriations intelligence subcommittees, canceling the program.

Well, as often happens with intelligence spending, the picture is much more complicated and nuanced, according to a senior Pentagon source and a congressional aide.

Here’s the money picture:The money is still there, but it now lives in different places and may be used for different purposes than those for which the administration had planned. In the Program Objective Memorandum, there is money — $700 million — in the Military Intelligence Program MIP for 2010 and 2011 but not for 2009. The $700 milllion is earmarked for what the intelligence community and Pentagon call Tier 2, a satellite imagery capability band which includes BASIC and high-resolution commercial imagery. The congressional appropriators moved $350 million in the 2009 to the National Intelligence Program. Broadly speaking, the MIP is managed by the Pentagon and the NIP is managed by the DNI.

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