Analysts Hard Pressed to Keep Up With Data From 5 Spy Satellites

Intelligence analysts can barely handle the deluge of photographs pouring into the CIA from spy satellites monitoring Iraqi forces in the Persian Gulf, Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine reported.

The respected industry journal will report in its Monday edition that experts at the CIA’s National Photo Interpretation Center are working round the clock to keep a steady stream of intelligence flowing to multinational forces in Saudi Arabia.

The report, copies of which were provided to reporters in Cape Canaveral, said strategic reconnaissance satellites were operating as if it were wartime. Imaging data from the satellites periodically backs up because there is too much to analyze.

As many as five spacecraft are observing the Middle East crisis zone, the magazine says. The satellites are in orbits that take one or two directly over the Persian Gulf every two days.

The report, citing the British-based Kettering Group of space observers, also says that the Soviet Union has three spy satellites monitoring Iraqi military activity.