TrendNorthrop, IAI to collaborate on small, light stellites

“Small is beautiful” appears to be the mantra not only of vegetraian, beads-and-sandals 1960s types, but now also the guiding principles of the defense establishemtn’s stalwarts. Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman will today use the occasion of a space conference in Colorado Spring to announce an exclusive partnership with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to build lighter and nimbler spy satellites to the U.S. military and intelligence community. Each satellite will weigh no more than 800 pounds.

The project is code-named “Trinidad” and analysts say it demonstrates Northrop’s eagerness to upgrade its status from that of a supplier of subsystems for government space programs to the more influential and lucrative status a a prime contractor. The Wall Street Journal’s Andy Pasztor reports that the collaborative effort will see Northrop buy and refurbish IAI-built high-resolution spy satellites at a cost of about $200 million each. This is not a small sum, but it pales next to the price tag of the typically larger and more complex U.S.-built satellites (note that small satellites form but a miniscule fraction of the $60 billion or so which the United States spends annually on space systems for the military and the intelligence community).

Northrop is bucking the trend not only in that it goes small and light rather than large and heavy. As importantly, it has adopted a strategy which will see it rely on foreign off-the-shelf technology in a hush-hush realm traditionally reserved exclusively for custom-built, top-of-the-line U.S. solutions. What with growing U.S. concern over the involvement of non-U.S. companies in owning and operating U.S. critical infrastructure assets, it is not at all clear that the U.S. Department of Defense, intelligence agencies, or Congress would be enthusiastic about going along with this approach.

Northrop says that its approach would achieve significant savings. For example, an initial system of eight low Earth orbit satellites will cost cost of less than $1.6 billion. The cost of designing, testing, and deploying eight large, high Earth orbit spy platforms in the United States would cost closer to $20 billion. It is possible, of course, to build smaller and lighter satellites in the United States and eventually achieve similar saving, but time is an issue here as well: Israel is way ahead in this department, planning to launch its light satellite later this year.

Time is of the essence here. U.S. military and intelligence leaders have been calling for the creation of a fleet of smaller and cheaper satellites which could be launched in weeks, if not days, in response to fast-developing events (some in the military call it “responsive space initiatives”). The need for a larger fleet of smaller and cheaper satellites is also highlighted by China;s growing anti-sateliite warfare capabilities.

Offering alternatives to large and expensive satellites is a gowing field, with companies such as Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Alliant Techsystems, and Orbital Sciences promoting not only different technollgies and gear, but also different visions of the systems.

Next: Different companies offer different visions of a small-satellite surveillance system