NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.–The Air Force’s effort to procure a next-generation rocket propulsion system would be put on hold if lawmakers can’t pass a fiscal year 2016 budget and, instead, pass a continuing resolution (CR), the service’s top space officer warned Wednesday.

Passing a CR, which funds the government at the previous fiscal year’s funding levels, means no new programs can start. In addition to the new rocket propulsion system, which Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) chief Gen. John Hyten said was slated to start in FY ’16, some classified programs would be put on hold, in addition to a number of other contracts the service has lined up to be awarded. 

Artist's rendering of a GPS III satellite. Photo: Lockheed Martin.
Artist’s rendering of a GPS III satellite. Photo: Lockheed Martin.

“All that stuff just gets put on hold,” Hyten told reporters here at the Air Force Association’s (AFA) Air and Space conference “It’s just bad.”

Leaders from across the Air Force declared their objection to a CR here at the conference, calling it worse than sequestration budget caps as it would fund the Air Force at levels below sequestration. Air Force Secretary Deborah James said Tuesday the long-term CR rumored to be lurking for when the new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1 would provide nearly $13 billion less than what the Air Force requested.

Hyten also said he continues to consider other options in case the beleaguered Global Positioning System (GPS) Next-Generation Operational Control Segment (OCX) can’t right the ship. Hyten said OCX, devleoped by Raytheon [RTN], is critical because to get GPS to the new M-Code standard, the Air Force needs integration of GPS III, OCX, the new ground system and the new modernized GPS user equipment. If Raytheon figures out the OCX issues, it will be able to process not only M-Code but L1C, L2C and L5 signals. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in early September that OCX needs $1.1 billion to deliver and is four years behind schedule.

Hyten said the Air Force continues to talk with the acquisition community about OCX alternatives, but, for now, the service is sticking with OCX because it believes OCX is the “right answer.” Raytheon did not return a request for comment by press time Wednesday.

The GPS III production line has stabilized, Hyten said, a year after the Air Force had withheld $26 million from prime contractor Lockheed Martin [LMT] because of delays due to a navigational payload issue by subcontractor Harris [HRS] (Defense Daily; Sept. 25, 2014). Hyten said the GPS III production line has stabilized and is now “looking pretty good.” He also said navigational payloads are being delivered, are going through testing and are proving themselves accurate.

That’s a lot of progress with the navigation payload considering Hyten said last year the Air Force was considering other options if Lockheed Martin and Harris coudln’t get the navigational payload issues resolved. Hyten said he was so upset last year because he visited Lockheed Martin’s GPS III production line, which he called “one of the most amazing in the world,” full of satellites waiting for navigational payloads. The delays, he said, caused the Air Force to waste many of the “back to basic” approaches it implemented in GPS III.

“Now the payload is coming through, the satellites are processing through right (and) I’m confident that we’ll be able to maintain the new schedule that we’re on,” Hyten said.