The House Appropriations defense subcommittee (HAC-D) approved the Defense Department’s July 10 reprogramming request to add $100 million and an additional fiscal year 2015 launch to the Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, according to a letter obtained by Defense Daily.

In a Sept. 19 letter to Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) Michael McCord, HAC-D Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) also approved a $22 million increase for the Air Force’s Cyberspace Vulnerability Assessment/Hunter (CVA/Hunter) weapon system. CVA/Hunter executes vulnerability, compliance, defense and non-technical assessments, best practice reviews, penetration testing and Hunter missions on Air Force and DoD networks and systems.

One of United Launch Alliance's Atlas V heavy lift rockets. Photo: ULA.
One of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V heavy lift rockets. Photo: ULA.

Reprogramming requests must be approved by all four congressional “defense committees,” which also includes the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee (SAC-D), the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) and the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC). If all four bodies do not agree to a provision in a reprogramming request, the request dies.

Air Force spokesman Maj. Eric Badger said Monday that all defense committees but SASC have approved the request. He said SASC has not acted on the reprogramming request. Representatives from SASC, HASC and SAC-D did not respond Monday when asked if they approved the EELV reprogramming request.

HAC-D approved an additional $21 million for the Air Force’s Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) program. The service requested an additional $25 million to fully fund the ORS-5 satellite launch and ground equipment in support of a first quarter FY ’17 launch. ORS-5 would develop enablers and demonstrate principles that would reduce non-recurring engineering risk for the Space Base Space Surveillance (SBSS) follow-on program.

HAC-D also approved a $5 million increase for system development and demonstration (SDD), research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) for next-generation Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS), which is notable as it is a new start program. The funding increase would provide technical risk reduction by redefining reference design interfaces between air vehicle, battle management command and control (BMC2) and sensor subsystems.

Frelinghuysen said in his letter HAC-D was concerned with the number and size of new starts which DoD sought to initiate with reprogrammed funds. Federal law prohibits the use of reprogramming funds to create or initiate a new start effort without prior congressional approval.

Among other notable programs:

* HAC-D approved an additional $533,000 for Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) operational system development, which would allow a server-based tool to be developed that tracks and archives actions and status of past and present recommendations from various technical reports providing for the capture of essential program knowledge. Boeing [BA] is prime contractor for ALCM.

* The subcommittee approved a $6 million decrease for ICBM fuze modernization. DoD said in the reprogramming request that funds are available due to deferring the W78/88-1 Life Extension Program and Mk21 fuze first production units slipping until FY ’22.

* HAC-D denied a $7 million increase and an additional 71 Predator Hellfire missiles.

* The subcommittee denied a $4 million decrease of funds for the Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T) program. DoD said in its request that funds were available due to a schedule slip in the downselect for FAB-T low rate initial production (LRIP) following concurrent development efforts. Raytheon [RTN] is prime contractor for FAB-T.

United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing, is the sole provider of EELV missions, though the Air Force wants to open them to competition.