From: <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/spesial/wikileaksdokumenter/article3969919.ece">Aftenposten</a><br>
Date: 5.2.2009

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S E C R E T BERLIN 000161 
NOFORN 
SIPDIS
STATE FOR EUR/CE PETER SCHROEDER
STATE FOR OES/SAT RAYMOND CLORE AND DAVID TURNER
STATE FOR ISN/MDSP DICK BUENNEKE
STATE FOR NGA MICHAEL HALES 
E.O. 12958:
DECL: 02/05/2035
TAGS: ETTC, PGOV, PINR, MCAP, PREL, TSPA, FR, GM
SUBJECT: BND LOBBYING MERKEL AND USG ON SATELLITE RECONNAISSANCE COOPERATION 
REF: BERLIN 93 
Classified By: Global Affairs Unit Chief Don L. Brown
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 

1. (S/NF)
SUMMARY: The German External Intelligence Service (BND) is
soliciting support and funding from the Chancellery for
transatlantic cooperation on a High Resolution Optical System
(HiROS) reconnaissance satellite constellation. Senior BND
officers will brief Chancellor Merkel on February 9 or 10 and
then travel to Washington on February 10-11 to visit NSA and
NGA. Germany is expected to make a final funding decision on
HiROS by the end of February, but the decision remains
politically contentious. HiROS Achilles, heel has been a lack
of German interagency agreement in the face of heavy French
political opposition, who are concerned that HiROS would
directly compete with French commercial imagery satellites.
The BND, the German Space Agency (DLR) and EADS-Astrium in
Friedrichshafen, which comprise the current HiROS core
partnership, all believe that a strategic US/German
partnership on HiROS would counter French opposition and shore
up German political support. END SUMMARY

HiROS HAS MERKELS EAR, BUT HOW ABOUT HER WALLET? 
-------------------------------------------------

2. (S/NF)
Colonel Joachim Karl Trenker, BND Director for Geospatial
Intelligence (GEOINT), informed NGAoff that he has a meeting
at the Chancellery on February 9, where he will lobby for
HiROS funding/support. We understand that Trenker will be
accompanied by BND Major General Armin Hassenpusch, the BND
Vice President for Military Affairs, but that Trenker will do
most of the talking. If given the Chancellery go-ahead, HIROS
would likely have the authority to solicit contract bids and
begin fabrication.

3. (C)
EADS-Astrium Office Director for Future Programs and Missions,
Thomas Walati, said he expects Trenker to advocate for working
with the US on HiROS to share costs and reduce risk. Walati
anticipates that Trenker will ask Merkel for around 300
million euro, enough to fund a three-satellite HiROS
constellation, but speculates that Merkel may authorize an
amount in the 100-200 million euro range.

COL TRENKER GOES TO WASHINGTON
------------------------------

4. (S/NF)
Immediately following his meeting at the Chancellery, Trenker
will depart for Washington, DC to meet with NSA
representatives on February 10 and with NGA representatives on
February 11. We expect Trenker to use these meetings to
solicit USG interest in and support for HiROS, with which he
hopes to return to Berlin as a core input to the Chancellerys
HiROS decision-making calculus. Highlighting the NGA visit
will be a meeting with NGA Deputy Director Lloyd Roland.
(COMMENT: Germany may have the impression that NGA would have
a role in procuring/operating satellites, as opposed to
serving as a functional manager for geospatial issues and
data. END COMMENT)

DLR OPTIMISTIC ON HIROS APPROVAL / MOD RESISTING 
------------------------------------------------ 

5. (C)
At the DLR New Years reception in Berlin on January 27, HiROS,
principal project manager, Dr. Andreas Eckardt, spoke
enthusiastically about the prospects of HiROS receiving
approval from Berlin, but confided to Econoff that resistance
remained within the Ministry of Defense (MOD). Eckardt hinted
that senior MOD officials may try to steer the Chancellery
away from HiROS, due to political ties with the French.
(COMMENT: Mixed emotions within the MOD on HiROS likely stem
from Germanys participation in a Multinational Space based
Imaging System (MUSIS) with France, Belgium, Greece, Italy and
Spain, where the MOD has the German lead. The establishment of
HiROS threatens to drastically reduce the relevance of MUSIS
to Germany and a potentially auspicious role for the German
MOD. END COMMENT) Eckardt said the final decision on HiROS
would be made at the end of February, and if approval is
obtained, the project would aim for full operational
capability (FOC) in 2014.

GETTING OHB ON BOARD FOR POLITICAL SUPPORT
------------------------------------------

6. (C)
Eckardt said that the core of the HiROS fellowship is still
coming together and that robust efforts are being made to add
Bremen-based OHB-System participation, primarily for political
support. Walati said that the owners of OHB-System, the Fuchs
family, have all necessary political connections to realize
HiROS and could bring the MOD around. He told us that OHB has
also indicated interest in partnering on HiROS because of the
business opportunity it presents, but that the company is
cautious about its role. Walati is pushing OHB to be the
industrial project lead, with Astrium subordinate, in an
effort to minimize French mischief.

Murphy
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