LETTER TO MR. MCINTYRE FROM SECRETARY OF COMMERCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP10M02313R000703980012-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: June 16, 1980
• Content Type: LETTER

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ROUTING AND TRANSMITTAL SUP
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?OPTIONAL FORM 41 (Rev. 7-76)
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Dear Mr. McIntyre:
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THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
Washington, D.C. 20230
JUN 1 6 1980
It is my pleasure to submit to you the Transition Plan for Civil Operational
Land Remote Sensing from Space called for by Presidential Directive/NSC-54
of November 16, 1979. This Plan was prepared by the Department of Commerce
in close coordination with an interagency Policy Group consisting of policy
level representatives from the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy,
the Interior and State, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
the Environmental Protection Agency, the Director of Central Intelligence,
and the Agency for International Development. Representatives of the
Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Office of Management and
Budget participated.
The recommended actions are presented on pages 14-16 of the Executive
Summary of the Transition Plan. These recommendations have been subjected
to careful review and comment by the agencies represented on the Interim
Policy Group. They concur in the recommendations, except to the extent
that reservations are expressed in the letters of concurrence and comment
which appear in Enclosure B. The 1982 budget proposals are tentative,
and the estimates will be refined as we prepare our September 15 submission.
I look forward to a prompt response
Budget with respect to the specific
Transition Plan so that we may move
President's objectives.
Enclosures
from the Office of Management and
recommendations contained in the
forward expeditiously to meet the
Sincerely,
Secretary of Commer
Honorable James T. McIntyre, Jr.
Director, Office of Management and Budget
Washington, D.C. 20503
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CC:
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Frank Press, Director, Office of Science & Technology
Bob S. Bergland, Secretary of Agriculture
Harold Brown, Secretary of Defense
Charles W. Duncan, Jr., Secretary of Energy
Cecil D. Andrus, Secretary of the Interior
Edmund S. Muskie, Secretary of State
Robert A. Frosch, Administrator, National Aeronautics
Space Administration
Honorable Douglas M. Costle
Agency
Honorable Stansfield Turner
Honorable Douglas J. Bennet
Development
Policy
and
Administrator, Environmental Protection
Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Jr., Administrator, Agency for International
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The information contained herein must not
be disclosed outside the agencies rep-
resented on the Interim Policy
Group until made public by
the President or by
the Congress
PRIVILEGED
TRANSITION
PLAN
FOR CIVIL OPERATIONAL
LAND REMOTE SENSING
FROM SPACE
JUNE 1980
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
NATIONAL OCEANIC AND
ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION
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The Director of Central Intelligence
Washington, D. C 20505
Honorable Philip M. Klutznick
Secretary of Commerce
Washington, DC 20230
Dear Phil,
r-
11 June 1980
The following comments address the interests of the Intelligence
Community with reference to the Transition Plan for Civil Land Remote
Sensing.
As you are aware, the Intelligence Community exploits all possible
sources of data that could contribute to its knowledge of foreign areas.
Consequently some intelligence organizations have been using Landsat-
derived data, and we anticipate that they will continue to use data
derived from the follow-on Civil Land Remote Sensing Program. Estimates
of the nature and extent of these requirements have been provided to the
NOAA personnel who developed the Transition Plan. These requirements
would be met by spectral capabilities such as provided by the current
Landsat multi-spectral system -- upgraded to improve reliability and
timeliness of product delivery.
In common with other current users of Landsat data, we have concerns
about the program maintaining continuity of data -- both over time and
with reference to full geographic coverage. It is regrettable that
there is a strong probability of having a gap in data continuity in the
near term. We believe that the current efforts to minimize the extent
and duration of any such gap should continue to be pursued vigorously.
A gap will have adverse effects on certain ongoing intelligence analyses.
Therefore the measures that the Transition Plan outlines to maintain
continuity subsequent to the transfer of operational responsibility seem
highly desirable -- not only from the Intelligence Community viewpoint,
but from the aspect of satisfying broader aspects of national policy.
Maintaining continuity of data should be viewed as basic to the national
policy of ensuring a successful operational remote sensing program.
Extensive disruptions of data continuity will tend to drive current
domestic and foreign users to alternative methods of satisfying their
data needs and facilitate foreign competition.
With reference to the system funding options, from the viewpoint of
developing the efficient centralized management and review system that
is essential to any major operational system our preference is for
having NOAA budget for all system funds -- with other agencies sharing
the costs of the system products. Next in our order of preference is
Tr71 ?
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the Transition Plan recommendation of having NOAA budget for core system
costs, but having the increments of special system capabilities funded
by user agencies. We can support this option as being equitable and
cost-effective, and it would help minimize the inefficiencies and com-
plexiti,es of fragmented management and budget review responsibilities.
We object to Option 3 of having the user agencies fund all system costs
on the ground that such multi-agency funding creates an impossible
management situation and budgetary obstacles that would clearly under-
mine the objective of establishing an operational civil land remote
sensing system. Furthermore, consideration must be given to the point
that as capital investments make the civil follow-on systems more
effective, the number of eventual US and foreign users in government,
academic and research organizations, and in the commercial sector, will
become correspondingly greater and the U.S. federal agencies' share of
the imagery products proportionally less. These factors emphasize the
inequity of apportioning all capital investment costs among a small
number of federal agencies.
An inadequate or poorly implemented system of capital investments
poses the risk of developing an inefficient or unreliable remote sensing
system. This will serve only to further stimulate foreign competition
and lead to erosion of the current US leadership in civil applications
of remote sensing technology from space, maintenance bf which is a basic
objective spelled out in the Presidential Directives. Since the Europeans
and the Japanese are already making major remote sensing advances,
satisfying this objective is a major consideration. Furthermore, a
marginal or substandard US system not able to compete with foreign
competition also decreases the likelihood of achieving private sector
involvement in the future operation of civil remote sensing activities--
still another Presidential objective.
We have no comments on the choice of the institutional framework
for the operation of the system--provided that whatever system is
devised is efficient and responsive to user requirements and can handle
classified materials. We do, however, have a comment concerning the
recommended concept of developing a rigid propriety concept for the data
derived from the system. This approach is one way of attempting to
implement the Presidential policy of encouraging involvement by the .
private sector. However, in phrasing the recommendation it seems
desirable to ensure that this propriety approach would be implemented if
experience and subsequently developed information indicate it to be a
desirable course of action--rather than to mandate this approach at the
beginning.
TANSFIELD T
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DISTRIBUTION:
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MEMORANDUM FOR:
VIA:
FROM:
, SUBJECT:
10 June 1980
Director of Central Intelligence
Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
Leptii?jw-m-rriEh?uu-ui for Collection Tasking
Transition Plan for Civil Operational Land Remote
Sensing
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1. Action Requested: Your signature on the attached letter to
Secretary of Commerce Klutznick that comments on the just developed
Transition Plan for Civil Operational Land Remote Sensing--the follow-on
to the current LANDSAT system program. Comments on the Plan must be
transmitted to the Secretary by Friday, 13 June 1980, so that they can
be forwarded to OMB as attachments to the Plan on Monday, 16 June 1980.
2. Background: As you are aware, the three recent Presidential
Directives relating to national space policy (PD/NSC-37, 42 and 54)
include provisions for the development of an operational satellite
remote sensing program for civil applications. PD/NSC-54 levied upon
Commerce the responsibility for preparing a Transition Plan to such an
operational system. Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin-
istration (NOAA) chaired the development of the Plan. I participated in
the deliberations of the Inte i
ce Communit .
3. In the course of these interaction, a number of problems that
have affected or could affect intelligence activities were identified
and most were resolved in a satisfactory manner. We see the probable
data gap in the near-term (through about 1982) as one remaining major
problem. This, however, is a problem about which little can be done
because of past budgetary decisions, but our continued pressure on this
point has stimulated NASA, which will remain responsible for operating
the present LANDSAT system, to advance the near-term launch schedule.
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4. During evolution of this Plan, OMB has exerted the strongest
pressures for having the user agencies share more of the costs of the
system and has directed these pressures toward sharing capital invest-
ments rather than only toward paying more for the products derived from
the system. ,This is obviously a tactic to ensure that the user agencies
do not let their requirements carry them away on a program whose costs
over a ten-year period are estimated to range from $2.0 billion for
continuing the LANDSAT system to $10 billion for a far more extensive
two-meter resolution system. The attached letter explicitly states for
the record that intelligence needs would be satisfied by the spectral
bands of the current LANDSAT multi-spectral system, upgraded to ensure
reliability and timeliness of product delivery. This position should
improve our defenses against OMB pressures to have the Intelligence
Community share in front-end costs to greatly improve system capabilittts.
5. Partly for the same reason, the letter endorses the funding
option of having NOAA budget for core system costs and having the individual
user agencies budget for special system capabilities (such as the high-
cost, high-resolution capability in which we are basically not interested,
or special collection and processing services for which we will probably
have ad hoc needs). Of the options presented, this funding option is a
feasible compromise that should have minimum impact on the intelligence
organizations and yet basically permits a centralized management which
significantly improves the likelihood of developing a successful opera-
tional system.
6. White House Staff (OMB and OSTP) representatives want individual
agency comments on the cost-sharing aspect, on their agency's require-
ments for a fully operational system, and on the institutional alternatives
for eventual operation of the system (government corporation, private
corporation). Apparently, OMB will analyze these comments to narrow the
range of options and probably proceed with another assessment cycle.
7. Staff Position: The attached letter provides the vehicle for
protecting the operational needs of the Intelligence Community while
simultaneously minimizing the budWary impact of the OMB pressures for
user sharing of additional costs. Lj also agrees with this
assessment.
8. Recommendation: I recommend that you sign the attached letter
to the Secretary of Commerce.
Attachment:
Proposed Letter for DCI Signature
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DISTRIBUTION:
Copy 1 - DCI
2 - DDCI
3 - ER
4 - D/DCl/CT
5 - D/DCl/RM
6 - D/OW.R
7 -
8 - RPAB Chrono
9 - PTO Chrono
10 - PTO Subject
11 - CT Registry
12 - RM Registry
DCl/CTS/PTO/RP
STAT
PTO 25X1
10 Jun 80)
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STAT