German intelligence agency gets spy satellite system funds

Deutsche Welle ^ | 11.05.2017 | Jefferson Chase

[Olog-hai]

The German government has allocated €400 million ($465 million) to fund the construction of up to three spy satellites for the country’s foreign intelligence service, the BND. This has been reported by a consortium of newspapers and is part of a general trend within Germany of increasing surveillance and surveillance capabilities.

It is expected that the system, which has been nicknamed “Georg,” could be launched into space by the early 2020s. A confidential sub-committee within the budget committee of the German parliament reportedly approved the money for the project, away from public scrutiny, this June.

The newspapers cited a document from within the office of Chancellor Angela Merkel arguing that the BND “needs to be able to gather information quickly and autonomously in order to be able to offer the most independent and up-to-date situation assessments possible.” The document added that it wasn’t “adequate to generate information while being dependent on third parties, to buy visual material on the commercial market or to make requests of international partners.” […]

According to diplomatic cables published by the whistleblower site Wikileaks in 2011, Germany tried in the past to arrange a partnership with the US to produce a High Resolution Optical System (HiROS) spying system. Those attempts were dropped in 2010.

The BND has lobbied for years to get its own spy satellites, and seems to have convinced the Chancellor’s Office that they are worth the expense. Last year, the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported that as part of a general expansion of Germany’s security authorities, the chancellor’s office would support BND satellites. …