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• US May Delay Missile Warning Satellite To Trim Budget
  
  Dow Jones
  August 29, 2006
  By Rebecca Christie
  
  WASHINGTON--The U.S. Air Force may delay a new Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) missile warning satellite because of new pressure to trim the Pentagon budget, according to people familiar with the matter.
  
  The $10 billion Space-Based Infrared System, or SBIRS, program is considered a prime target as the Pentagon assembles its budget proposal for fiscal year 2008. To make more room for fighters and tankers, the service may postpone purchase of a third big satellite.
  
  Each SBIRS satellite will cover about a third of the earth's surface. As a result, any new delays will postpone when the new system can take over from older missile warning satellites. This would increase the risk of a coverage gap as the existing system ages.
  
  Air Force officials aren't eager to take on that risk. But because the service needs to cut costs somewhere, a SBIRS delay is on the table, according to government and industry sources.
  
  Even though Congress has not yet approved Pentagon funds for fiscal 2007, which starts Oct. 1, federal agencies are already hard at work developing a 2008 budget plan for consideration next year. The White House's budget office typically finalizes details for the next fiscal year by December.
  
  The Air Force cannot comment on when the Defense Department will make a decision on how to proceed with SBIRS in fiscal year 2008, Air Force spokeswoman Maj. Regina Winchester said.
  
  New Delays Driven By Budget, Not More Tech Challenges The proposed delay is largely budget-driven, in contrast to the SBIRS program's past travails. Since its inception in the mid-1990s, the program has encountered a string of cost and schedule troubles that led one general to call it a "poster child" for bad management.
  
  In addition to the missile warning mission, the SBIRS satellites also will have sensors to track moving targets and perform a range of other duties for intelligence analysts and battlefield commanders. As a result, the SBIRS satellites have been much more complicated and technically challenging than expected.
  
  Last December, the Pentagon announced a broad overhaul to get the program back on track. Chief Defense Department weapons buyer Ken Krieg said the Air Force should buy the first two big satellites and then decide in 2008 whether to buy the third spacecraft or pursue an alternative.
  
  A third satellite under the existing program is the most likely course because as fiscal year 2008 takes shape, the Alternative Infrared Satellite System program is still in its infancy. The Air Force program office says bids for a system definition contract are due Sept. 8, with awards expected by November.
  
  In contrast, the main SBIRS program appears to be making solid progress. On Tuesday, Lockheed Martin said the first big SBIRS satellite has successfully completed an extensive test phase, known as spacecraft functional testing.
  
  "The team executed a highly disciplined and successful test and the results give us high confidence that the spacecraft will meet all performance requirements," said Mark Crowley, Lockheed Martin's SBIRS vice president, in a press release.
  
  The first big SBIRS satellite is slated for launch in late 2008. Work on the second satellite is underway; it is scheduled for launch in late 2009 and Lockheed Martin says the satellite is on track to meet that goal.
  
  These big satellites form the heart of the SBIRS constellation. They will circle the earth in geosynchronous orbit, looking for missile launches and other threats. The SBIRS program also includes a ground system and two polar-orbiting satellites that will piggyback on a classified satellite system; these modules already have been delivered.
  
  If the Air Force delays the third big SBIRS satellite, it might shave about $320 million from its fiscal year 2008 plans and postpone about $1.3 billion in near-term follow-on funding, said defense analyst Jim McAleese of McAleese and Associates, a Washington-area government contracting law firm. Citing budget documents from last year's deliberations, he said the baseline SBIRS research funding comes to about $700 million that would probably continue.
  
  "The war on terror has significantly changed this administration's focus on space. The levels of space funding growth that we initially anticipated at the beginning of Donald Rumsfeld's tenure are not achievable," McAleese said.

I think that last paragraph is kinda interesting, from an academic perspective, but this Seems like it might Threaten star Wars.