New York, March 23: The Pentagon's vaunted satellite network, which is helping US pilots and navy seamen to pinpoint targets for bombing, may be in danger of going dark, a media report has said. A highly classified 17 to 19 billion dollar replacement system, supposed to be completed around 2005, has gotten so far off schedule that the military could suffer an "imagery gap" as aging satellites in the current system flicker out, 'Time' magazine quoted "knowledgeable" US Officials as saying. The so-called future imagery architecture programme, managed by Boeing Co. - and nicknamed "fiasco," a pun on its acronym, by some insiders - is also running well over budget even as the aerospace giant has had to scale back some promised new capabilities, officials said. A Boeing spokesperson, time says, has declined comment.

An official at the national reconnaissance office, which is responsible for building and keeping spy satellites in the air, insisted that, "over the years, amazingly enough, the reconnaissance satellites have lasted longer than their design lives. And I'll just leave it at that."
Bureau Report