The U.S. House of Representatives is making alterations to the U.S. Air Force<\/b> budget in a defense spending bill that is expected to reduce the budget for the GPS space and ground segments from $463.1 million to about $413 million. Congressional appropriators also are expected to slim the Air Force\u2019s $390.9 million request for its GPS OCX by about $50 million. GPS OCX is currently under development by Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems<\/b>. The Air Force launch vehicle budget is on the chopping block as well, and is expected to be cut by about $170 million.<\/p>\n
<\/b>The sole beneficiary of the Air Force budget is Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems<\/b>, which is building the Air Force\u2019s Wideband Global Satcom spacecraft \u2014 a program set to receive an additional $335 million in the bill. The funds were authorized to purchase the ninth WGS satellite.
\nCongress is making alterations to the U.S. Air Force\u2019s plans for GPS and its Evolutionary Acquisition for Space Efficiency (EASE) strategy after a June 13 U.S. House of Representatives\u2019 defense subcommittee report harshly criticized the Pentagon\u2019s budget management.
\n The EASE strategy was first announced in January, when the Air Force unveiled plans to implement a new acquisition strategy that relies more on multi-satellite purchases with the intent of eliminating the funding fits and starts that have plagued space programs in recent years.
\nSpeaking at an Air Force Association media briefing, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said that a \u201cmore stable research and development funding for space programs and increased use of fixed-price contracts would also be elements of the new EASE effort that begins with the 2012 budget request.\u201d
\n The Air Force submitted its 2012 budget request in February. The proposal included the purchase of the fifth and sixth Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) communications satellites from Lockheed Martin<\/b> through advanced funding. U.S. House authorizers and appropriators denied the request.
\n Speaking at the Aerospace Industries Association<\/b>\u2019s (AIA) Board of Governors meeting in June, AIA President and CEO Marion Blakey said her association\u2019s Federal Budget Education Campaign \u2013 an initiative to educate U.S. politicians on the benefits of aerospace and defense to national security, economy and civil aviation and space infrastructure \u2013 is a direct response to the way Congress has handled recent federal budgetary decisions.
\n \u201cWe need to make the case that Ill-considered cuts can have unintended consequences,\u201d said Blakey. \u201cThe aerospace and defense industry will have to do its part to get the nation\u2019s economic house in order and unify our voice, resulting in a stronger industry.\u201d
\n Blakey\u2019s comments kicked off a series of panel speeches from various industry experts with a common theme focusing on the government\u2019s support role of the aerospace industry. The AIA event followed a Defense spending report published by the association in May, which criticized Congress\u2019 approach to selecting programs for downsizing.
\n \u201cOne key ingredient that is needed to provide our deployed forces with the necessary capabilities is procurement. Procurement is the last step following a successful research and development effort. Without a structured, or even an unstructured R&D program, the fundamental exploration of new concepts and capabilities and an examination of technological feasibility simply does not occur,\u201d the report said. \u201cAs with procurement, the basic question is \u2018How Much Is Enough?\u2019 But all agree that R&D provides the basic investment that makes future technology possible and provides an invaluable hedge against an uncertain future.\u201d
\n Andrew Krepinevich, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments<\/b>, claimed that the military is carrying too much of the burden caused by the U.S. economic recession and blamed \u201cexcessive entitlements\u201d for putting security programs at risk. \u201cWe desparately need a strategy to preserve our defense industrial base as a strategic asset, or the impact of future budget cuts will likely fall disproportionately on [U.S. Department of Defense] modernization accounts.\u201d
\n But not all talk was on interaction between politics and the industry. Military officials also pleaded their case to the aerospace industry\u2019s private sector for stronger partnerships to negotiate the challenges ahead for the service. Gen. Philip Breedlove, vice chief of staff for the U.S. Air Force, said the tight fiscal environment in Congress has created an \u201cunprecedented\u201d uncertainty of threats to national security.
\n \u201cThe service is committed to recapturing acquisition excellence with industry. Affordability, realistic cost estimates and stringent requirements are key steps in this process,\u201d said Breedlove. \u201cWe are flying the oldest fleet in the history of the Air Force. The average age of an aircraft today is in excess of 24 years. With less than one percent of the population serving the nation in uniform, my top priority is to make sure these men and women had everything they needed to do their job and I will not compromise on that.\u201d
\n Air Force Maj. Gen. Susan Mashiko, deputy director of the U.S.<\/b> National Reconnaissance Office<\/b> (NRO) talked about her agency\u2019s Space Acquisition System and that, as of March, all 20 NRO programs were on target for cost, schedule and performance.
\n \u201cThe NRO is celebrating its 50th anniversary during National Aerospace Week on September 17. It took a lot of discipline with a flat budget, operational tempo and current skill sets to achieve this. The agency\u2019s successful launch of five satellites in five months is the most ambitious and successful launch schedule in its history,\u201d said Mashiko.
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The U.S. House of Representatives is making alterations to the U.S. Air Force budget in a defense spending bill that is expected to reduce the budget for the GPS space and ground segments from $463.1 million to about $413 million. Congressional appropriators also are expected to slim the Air Force\u2019s $390.9 million request for its GPS OCX by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84543"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}