Despite looming budget uncertainty and potential additional sequestration cuts, Air Force brass said yesterday they believe the service’s space programs are in a better position than ever.
Air Force Deputy Under Secretary for Space Richard McKinney said with the service’s missile warning, Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) and Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite systems in production and a past decade of successful launches, the Air Force’s space programs are flying high.
“We have more capability today than we’ve ever had,” McKinney told reporters at the Pentagon. “So I think we’re in a very good position.”
Air Force Acting Under Secretary Jamie Morin said compared to the hits the rest of the Air Force has taken so far in fiscal year 2013, the space programs will survive the budget tumult. Air Combat Command announced last week that the Air Force, because of cuts to the ACC’s operations and maintenance (O&M) accounts, will stand down active duty combat units to ensure remaining units supporting worldwide operations can maintain sufficient readiness.
“We feel like we have our space programs on good footing through a lot of years of working through challenges and significant cost growth, significant delays, but we’re now kind of reaching fruition,” Morin said.
But Morin reiterated while the Air Force’s space programs are on “good footing,” they are not immune to future budget challenges.
The Air Force officials said the Space Fence program is one of those programs on good footing. Morin said he thinks Space Fence is “as solid as a program can be in the fiscal environment we’re in right now.” McKinney added because Space Fence made it in the FY ’14 budget, “that’s as good as it gets.” Reuters reported last week Air Force Space Command chief Gen. William Shelton said Space Fence could be vulnerable to future cuts since it was not yet under contract.
The Air Force is currently in source selection between Raytheon [RTN] and Lockheed Martin [LMT], the two prime contractors gunning for the $3.5 billion contract. The Air Force expects to award a contract by the end of third quarter FY ’13, which ends June 30. (Defense Daily, April 12).
Morin said the Air Force still wants two Space Fence sites with Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands already selected for the first site. But the Air Force hasn’t allocated funding for a possible second site in Australia.
“The budget just has money for one and that’s where we are today,” McKinney said.