The Defense Department lacks the knowledge necessary to commit to the concept of satellite disaggregation, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said March 10.
GAO Director of Acquisition and Sourcing Management Issues Cristina Chaplain said her office had been early in a disaggregation review, but it was “clear” that DoD didn’t have the knowledge to commit to disaggregation.
“A lot more knowledge is needed on the potential options, cost benefits,” Chaplain said during a panel at the
Satellite 2014 conference in Washington. Satellite 2014 is produced by Defense Daily parent company Access Intelligence LLC.
Disaggregation is a concept by which instead of the large, billion-dollar satellites DoD used to procure in better budget environments, the Pentagon would rely on multiple, smaller, and more affordable satellites to spread around capabilities. Air Force Maj. Gen. Robert McMurry, director of space programs for the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, told reporters the service was committed to disaggregation and that it was “pretty aggressively embracing” disaggregation as a way to deal with an increasingly contested space environment.
Chaplain said GAO was in the middle of a “mandated review” on disaggregation to explore its potential costs and benefits of what DoD needs to address as it goes forward.
DoD’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) office, Chaplain said, is performing its own review of DoD’s disaggregation effort. Chaplain also said GAO is getting ready to start a “mandate” on commercial bandwidth as industry representatives have been pushing the Pentagon to better define its needs for commercial bandwidth.
Deputy Air Force Under Secretary for Space Troy Meink told reporters this month disaggregation was being looked at for both the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) communications constellation and Space-Based Infrared (SBIRS) missile warning constellation. Meink also said where it appears to be “economically viable” and supports “resiliency,” disaggregation will be the way forward. He added the Air Force has two analyses of alternatives (AoA) in process to examine disaggregation. McMurry said the AEFH AoA is due in the summertime while Meink said the SBIRS AoA is to be finished in either late 2014 or early 2015.
“Fundamentally, what we’re looking at is: can you expand a contested environment,” Meink said. “If you split the satellites into smaller satellites, are you more resilient in that contested environment?”