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MINUTES OF MEETING 66-3 

AIR FORCE MOL POLICY COMMITTEE 

Friday, May 20, 1966 

Room 4E871, Pentagon 

Attendance: 

Committee: 

Hon. Harold Brown, Secretary of the Air Force, Chairman 

Hon. Norman S. Paul, Under Secretary of the Air Force 

Hon. Alexander H. Flax, Asst. Secretary of the Air Force (R&D) 

Hon. Leonard Marks, Jr., Asst. Secretary of the Air force (FM) 

*General William H. Blanchard, Vice Chief of Staff, USAF 

General B. A. Schriever, Commander, AFSC 

Lt General James Ferguson, DCS/R&D 

Secretariat: 

Major General Harry L. Evans, Executive Secretary (SAF-SL) 

Colonel Richard L. Dennen; Asst. to Executive Secretary (SAF-SL) 

Proceedings: 

1. The meeting was called to order at 0800 hours. 

2. General Berg, in the introduction to the SPO briefing, stressed 

the view that MOL is a complete integrated system. He reiterated that 

the primary objective of MOL is to develop an operationally useful 

reconnaissance system. He stated that studies are underway in the 

secondary objective areas of COMINT, ELINT and ocean surveillance; but 

that nothing is being done on tertiary objectives of experiments. 

General Berg indicated incremental increases in program costs 

since the August 24, 1965 program of approximately $1.5B. A major change 

to the baseline cost was created by inclusion of the automatic mode. 

"Tiger teams" have been established for the„purpose of reducing both 

weights and costs. In addition, Evaluation/Negotiation Teams (ENT) have 

been established to evaluate each contractor's proposal, and to then 

negotiate the contract. 

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General Berg stressed his confidence in the SPO cost estimates, but emphasized that they included no contingencies. 

3. Mr. Sampson presented a technical description of the MOL/ 

DORIAN system, covering the following areas: 

Objectives -- including the unclassified objective of determining man's capability to perform military functions 

in space. 

System Capabilities -- ground resolution 

-- coverage 500 frames per day, 50-100 targets per 

day (cloud free) located anywhere on the earth. 

-- mission duration 30 days. 

-- repetition interval 60 days. 

Mission Payload -- optical element 72 inches in diameter. 

-- effective clear aperture 

-- focal length 

Payload Operating Capabilities -- acquisition and tracking scope. 

-- readout 40 (1" x 1" chips) per day at approximately 

1 minute to transmit each chip. 

-- 1 recovery capsule of 60 pounds capacity, to bring 

back full take of first week's operation. 

-- comparison of manned/unmanned system. 

-- operations -- mission control, target coverage 

pattern, crew work cycle, recovery. General 

Schriever emphasized the fact that the Sunnyvale 

Control Center is much smaller than Houston. 

System and Subsystem Description -- TIIIM, Laboratory, Gemini B. 

Factory-to-pad Flow -- Douglas, GE, EK; complete cycle is approximately 1 year. 

4. Colonel Lind covered the program costs both as estimated by the 

contractors and as reviewed in detail by in-house teams and the SPO. The 

current 9-shot baseline program was compared as follows: 

Contractor Contractor Estimates SPO Estimates 

Douglas $ 1332M $ 834 

McDonnell 351M 276M 

Martin 458M 365M 

GE 318M 239M 

Other 343M 343M 

Approximate Total $ 2805M $2058M 

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Considering the cost reduction items identified by the SPO 

and a schedule change to "Option 6" (7-shot program with first manned 

launch in December 1969), the SPO estimate of funding requirements is 

reduced to $1751M. These funds break out approximately as follow: 

FY 66 FY 67 FY 68 FY 69 FY 70 FY 71 

$75M $252M $553M $457M $292M $120M 

Below the line items in FY 67 were identified totalling $19M: 

Navy - 3; advanced studies - 10; advanced hardware - 6. 

General Schriever stated that in a meeting with contractor top 

management, he had stressed the importance of reducing costs. Secretary 

Flax confirmed it has been made clear to the contractors that too high 

costs jeopardize program approval. 

5. General Berg summarized, requested Committee concurrence in 

giving the briefing to DDR&E next day, and requested Committee approval 

of Option 6 as a firm schedule for contractor negotiation. 

6. General Schriever stated that he and Secretary Flax agreed on 

Option 6. Secretary Brown concurred that it is the best schedule, but 

it requires extra money in FY 67, and there is a need to define what 

will be flown in the first manned flight. Secretary Flax recommended 

the use of the compatibility model optical sensor as the first flight 

sensor. This model will be available 6 months earlier than the flight 

model. This approach would provide an incentive to all contractors to 

do a "flight quality" job and to adhere to the schedule. Secretary 

Brown agreed. Secretary Marks noted that going to Option 6 and moving 

the end of the program forward would not really reduce costs; Secretary 

Flax agreed, but indicated the value of earlier intelligence data. 

7. With regard to funding, Secretary Brown agreed that since the 

contractors have not submitted firm quotes, the SPO estimates should 

not include contingencies. The program estimate will result from contractor negotiations. General Blanchard raised the issue of FY 67 

money; Secretary Brown stated that the additional $80m requested had 

passed only one Committee (House Armed Services). He also expressed 

the belief that the FY 67 estimate is still not correct within $20M. 

Secretary Flax expressed the concern that if additional funds were not 

authorized, the impact on the AF RDT&E program would be drastic. 

8. The Committee review resulted in the following Program direction: 
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a. Proceed with the Option 6 -- 7 flights scheduled for 

April 1969, Jilly 1969, December 1969, April 1970, July 1970, October 1970, 

January 1971. The Gemini B qualification flight to be on Flight No. 1; 

Flight No. 3 to be the first manned flight with the compatibility model 

camera-optical sensor to be fully operational; Flights 4 and 5 to be 

manned-automatic; and Flights 6 and 7 to be automatic. 

b. No contingency to be added to the SPO cost estimate for 

Option 6 for purposes of presentation to DOD. 

c. Upon conclusion of negotiations with contractors a firm program cost baseline will be established. 

The meeting adjourned at 0930 hours. 

APPROVED BY "'- TUE SECRETARY 07 THE MR FOES 

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APPENDIX 

MOL POLICY COMMITTEE 

May 20, 1966 

Other Attendees: 

Michael I. Yarymovych, Technical Director, MOL ProgramBrigadier General Russell A. Berg, Deputy Director, MOL Program 

William Sampson, Aerospace Corporation 

Colonel Marcel Lind, SAF-SL1 

Colonel Fred H. Dietrich, SAF-SL1 

Colonel Robert J. Walling, MOL Program Office 

Colonel Richard C. Randall, MOL Program Office 

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