Future Imagery Architecture

FIA has been called by The New York Times "perhaps the most spectacular and expensive failure in the 50-year history of American spy satellite projects.

[4] The exact scope and mission of FIA are classified, although the head of the NRO said in 2001 that the project would focus on creating smaller and lighter satellites.

[5] Some industry experts believe that a key objective is to make the satellites more difficult to attack, possibly by placing them in higher orbits.

Honeywell supplied radiation hardened HX-3000 ASICs, which due to their low power usage and high speed had been selected to serve multiple functions in the project (BRAM, ADD, EBWC, ERBC, ...), required several respins, and interventions to fix yield issues and manufacturing errors.

[7] In September 2005 DNI John Negroponte terminated the FIA IMINT contract with Boeing because of the cost overruns and delays of the delivery date.

[13] The optical system was specified to provide both high angular resolution via image stabilisation and wide angle (large field of view) capability.

The optical telescope assets later transferred to NASA feature the following specifications and innovations: Another key component of FIA was to launch and orbit at least 10 satellites, which would provide a 2.5 times higher cadence of viewing opportunities than the previous EOI constellation.

Images by an amateur astronomer hint at an antenna diameter of roughly 12 m.[16] The first operational FIA Radar satellite, USA-215 or NROL-41,[17] was launched on 21 September 2010.