Space Control
Taxpayers for Common Sense released their "Space Security Database" the other day and some of the numbers are astounding.
Space is crucial to our national security, and we’ve got the skyrocketing budgets to prove it. The United States spends billions on military space programs each year, spread out over the military services as well as myriad offices and agencies. Yet there is no central authority for tracking defense-related space spending, either within the Department of Defense (DOD) or across other federal agencies that provide satellites, sensors and services for use in our national defense.
Without this birds-eye view on spending, those who determine our space and national security policy—in the White House, on Capitol Hill and at the Pentagon—do not have a crucial tool for setting spending priorities. Priorities are necessary to make sure our military is supported and taxpayers’ dollars well spent. A transparent, accountable budget is particularly vital in light of the troubled history of space acquisitions, which has resulted in major programs running so far over budget and behind schedule that many of them still have not deployed after many years and billions of dollars.
Now Taxpayers for Common Sense has for the first time tracked military-related space spending across the federal government. Among our findings:
- U.S. spending on space programs used for national security is steadily rising, jumping more than 40 percent between Fiscal Years 2005 and 2009;
- More than 20 percent of military-related space spending now comes from agencies outside DOD, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA);
- Spending on “space control,” the mission area that protects U.S. space assets, increased 37 percent over the past five years to nearly $1 billion in Fiscal Year 2009. This is notable because of the military’s recent empowerment of space control programs to destroy threatening assets.
- Space situational awareness programs—an element of space control benefiting from many Congressional earmarks in spending bills—have jumped by 35 percent to $560 million.
- Space and space-related missile defense programs benefit significantly from earmarks, attracting at least 75 earmarks worth $221 million in Fiscal Year 2008 alone.
- Twelve programs have seen cost growth of more than 200 percent in the past five years, particularly space control programs such as the Air Force’s Space Control Technologies program element (570 percent) and the Army’s Ground-Based Space Control Systems project (650 percent).
We’ve blogged about many of these government programs. Probably because there’s so much at stake — and the technology is really cool. Here’s their "Top 5" of worst offenders (download the PDF):
1) Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS)
SBIRS was infamously dubbed “a case study for how not to execute a space program” by DOD’s Defense Science Review Board.8 Intended to replace DOD’s decades-old system tf infrared surveillance sensors that warn of incoming missiles , SBIRS was supposed to consist of four operational satellites in Geosynchronous Earth Orbit GEO), sensors on two classified DOD satellites in Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO), and a ground-based relay station to track missile launches. The Air Force conceived the program in 1994, and it began in earnest with a $2.16 billion contract to Lockheed-Martin in 1996. The next 12 years saw numerous program restructurings, four Nunn-McCurdy breaches and a 175% cost jump. The program is now seven years behind schedule, and the first satellite has yet to2) National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS)
A joint project between the Defense Department, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NPOESS will circle the globe picking up weather and climate data with an array of sensors carried on its chassis . NPOESS was intended to save money by replacing two similar systems operated separately by the Air Force and NOAA. Unfortunately, construction and testing bungles slowed development so significantly that 14 years later, the cost of the program has doubled from $6.5 to $13.5 billion for four instead of six satellites and the initial launch has moved back 39 months to3) Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) Satellites
The AEHF satellite system was intended to upgrade the Air Force’s Milstar II satellite communications system, ramping up speed and preventing enemies from jamming its signals. AEHF will itself be replaced by the Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT) currently under development, although how and when is still an open question. The program was originally comprised of five satellites, but the fourth and fifth were cut in December 2002 under the assumption that the first TSAT satellite would be ready early enough to make the system work (see below). When TSAT’s schedule began to slip, Congress asked the Air Force to fund a fourth satellite in 2009. Unfortunately, it turns out the fourth satellite will likely cost more than twice as much as the third because of the four-year gap in production and the fact that some of the components are no longer manufactured.4) Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV)
The EELV program began in December of 1996 as an industry partnership aimed at replacing current families of launch vehicles with a newer, more economical launch program. The Air Force contracted with Lockheed Martin and Boeing, who developed the Atlas V and Delta IV expendable launch vehicles, respectively. The two companies gave the Air Force overly optimistic cost estimates based on assumed growth in the commercial launch sector. But the ironic combination of a global recession with the extended life span of successful satellite designs caused a steep dive in launches in the late nineties, and the Air Force paid.5) Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT)
The Air Force’s Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT) is slated to become the single most expensive DOD space program over the next decade. TSAT will replace the AEHF system currently under development with five satellites intended to provide the military with vastly expanded communications capabilities with enough bandwidth and data to allow soldiers to view videos and pictures of activity within seconds. The system hasn’t yet formally entered the development phase and has already seen a nine-year slip in the launch of its first satellite to 2019.
Seems the DoD ought to have a top manager whose sole responsibility is "space situational awareness." Clearly, this policy vacuum needs to be filled, and President Obama’s looking into space.
There may be plenty of room in space, but there far less room in the Federal budget for this kind of spend.
