COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.–Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) wants the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to oversee the Air Force’s upcoming Wideband satellite communications (SATCOM) analysis of alternatives (AoA) to ensure commercial SATCOM operators get a fair shake in the process.
Bridenstine, who serves on the House Armed Services (HASC) strategic forces subcommittee, put this provision in his all-encompassing space legislation known as the American Space Renaissance bill. Calling it the United States’ Sputnik moment, Bridenstine’s bill touches on everything from military to civil to commercial space issues.
Bridenstine’s bill requires the Wideband AoA to provide full consideration of COMSATCOM capabilities, business models and technology insertion plans. It also requires the GAO to review the AoA to ensure that the Defense Department truly “opens the aperture” and provides realistic cost comparisons between military SATCOM and COMSATCOM. The GAO is Congress’ watchdog.
Lawmakers, he said, have heard from DoD that commercial costs four times as much as government-procured, owned and operated systems. Bridenstine quipped this would mark the first time in United States history that government is four times more efficient than commercial operators.
“I don’t believe it,” Bridenstine told Defense Daily after his presentation here at the 32nd Space Symposium. “I don’t think we’re getting an apples-to-apples comparison. I think we need an outside party to look at the comparison and give Congress a different perspective.”
Bridenstine has said in the past while he doesn’t expect his bill to be enacted in full, he hopes that other lawmakers use bits and pieces as part of future legislation. Bridenstine told Defense Daily he is “very confident” his GAO-wideband AoA provision will be enacted into law.
COMSATCOM operators for years have been begging the Air Force to come up with a long-term SATCOM plan so they can invest and prepare to provide DoD the service it may need moving forward. Operators have also called for the service to improve the way it procures SATCOM by planning for the future instead of inefficiently procuring it at the last minute on the open market, a process they call spot market buying.
COMSATCOM operator executives have told Defense Daily they are concerned that the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) will use the Wideband AoA as an excuse to keep the status quo, that is, continuing to procure wideband SATCOM capabilities as it currently does, through government procured, owned and operated systems like Wideband Global Satcom (WGS). One operator said while he believes the Air Force means well and has its heart in the right place, he was concerned that OSD acquisition folks will be too focused on costs, stifling the Air Force’s attempts at COMSATCOM procurement innovation.
The Air Force, in the next couple months, will release its AoA, an effort to solicit information from industry on what capabilities it could provide the service in the future. The AoA is critical as it will define how the government acquires SATCOM for the next decade or more, Eutelsat America CTO David Bair said at the Satellite 2016 conference in March (Defense Daily, March 9).
Bridenstine said his bill also requires DoD to provide a comprehensive assessment of desirable protection capabilities that would allow commercial systems to better integrate with DoD architectures. He wants DoD to deliberately plan for commercial systems during architecture development. In addition to the Wideband AoA, the Air Force has created a “Tiger Team” to study future space architecture issues. Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) chief Gen. John Hyten is supposed to speak more about this effort later this week here at the Space Symposium.
Read more about Bridenstine’s bill at spacerenaissanceact.com.