WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has approved plans to buy and launch two commercial-class imagery satellites to complement its classified constellation of spy craft.
The Pentagon will also increase the amount of imagery purchased from private companies operating similar satellites already in the sky.
The decision last week caps months of wrangling over whether to buy and operate commercial satellites, or to pump the money into buying dramatically more imagery from commercial companies that already have similar satellites in orbit.
The National Reconnaissance Office will buy two commercial satellites for about $1.7 billion. The satellites are to be launched around 2012, according to Pentagon documents obtained by The Associated Press.
But critics of the program say the Pentagon is spending billions to re-create and compete with private companies like GeoEye of Dulles, Va., and Longmont-based DigitalGlobe, which are expected to put four new satellites into orbit by 2013.
On its face the decision conflicts with the president’s national security space policy, which directs the government to buy as much commercial imagery as possible to help the companies withstand competition from subsidized foreign satellite companies.
