Defense analysts see merit in the decision by Congress to pull funds for construction of two broad-area mapping satellites whose construction commercial-imagery firms had lobbied intensely against.

Congress “withdrew funding” for the proposed satellites, known as the Space-based Imagery Collector, confirmed Michael Burningham, spokesman for the Director of National Intelligence. Language ordering the spending cut was included in a classified annex to the 2009 Defense Appropriations Act approved by the House and Senate in late September.

The congressional action put lawmakers at odds with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell. On Sept. 8, they gave the go-ahead for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to spend $1.7 billion to build and launch two BASIC satellites by 2012.

The two U.S. commercial imagery companies, GeoEye of Virginia and DigitalGlobe, of Colorado, had argued they could provide the same imagery at lower cost.

Gary Payton, deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for space, had argued that BASIC would be an important addition to commercial imagery purchases. “We see BASIC being integrated with current operations more tightly than we could ever tie [commercial imagery],” he said by e-mail. “These targets and operations will have operational security implications that the combatant commander may not be comfortable supporting with a commercial imagery purchase,” he said.

That argument did not gain traction among analysts. The NRO can get the same satellite imagery for less than half the cost by buying it from commercial satellite companies, said Edward Jurkevics, a satellite and geospatial technology industry analyst. The NRO should focus on the ultra-advanced capability satellites it refers to as “exquisite systems,” Jurkevics said. For “run-of-the-mill” commercial satellites, NRO ownership doesn’t make sense, he said.

For Congress to pull the plug on BASIC was a demonstration of “fiscal responsibility in the face of the failure that has taken place before,” said Charles Vick, a senior analyst at GlobalSecurity.org.

BASIC was meant to fill part of the void left by cancellation of the NRO’s Future Imagery Architecture, a satellite program that burned through nearly $10 billion before being canceled in 2005 without launching a satellite.

“It went way over budget and they had considerable trouble with the technology,” Vick said.

By canceling BASIC, lawmakers have at least temporarily stopped the NRO from competing against commercial satellite companies, Vick said.

Senior Pentagon officials, including acquisition chief John Young, warned last summer that such competition might violate a 2003 presidential directive to use commercial imagery to the “maximum practical extent.”

While canceling BASIC, Congress left a door open through which the intelligence agencies might re-enter the commercial-class satellite business. Lawmakers provided $300 million and instructions to the director of national intelligence to conduct a study on future overhead imagery requirements and capabilities. Due next spring, the study is to include cost estimates of the space and ground elements of all options studied.

U.S. intelligence agencies tend to favor government ownership of satellites because “they argue that they need control,” Jurkevics said. In wartime, the military and intelligence agencies can commandeer satellites if they deem that necessary, he said.

They can also write into contracts that they have priority when it comes to collecting images, Jurkevics said.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the nation’s map makers, cites benefits to relying on commercial satellites for imagery. A key one is that it is much easier to share commercial imagery with allies because it is unclassified. Images collected by U.S. government-owned satellites are generally classified and off limits even to partners in wartime coalitions.

GeoEye-1 provides U.S. intelligence agencies with 0.41-meter resolution images. DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-1 offers images at 0.5-meter resolution.

U.S. agencies also acquire imagery from about a dozen less sharp-eyed U.S. and foreign-owned commercial satellites, the NGA said.