Eight senators recently asked Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to review the Air Force’s decision to reduce the number of competed Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) missions from 14 to seven during the fiscal years 2015 to 2017 timeframe.
“We strongly believe this proposal undermines the Air Force’s previous plan to begin (competing) launches in 2015 and urge you to take all necessary steps to ensure the Air Force fulfills its commitment to provide meaningful competition opportunities this year for award in fiscal year 2015 and beyond,” the senators said in a letter signed by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).
The letter said the Air Force in its FY ’15 budget request did not include plans to compete EELV missions in 2015 and, instead, planned to reduce the total number of missions to be competed from FY ’15 to ’17. The senators said they believe this action does not comply with a 2012 acquisition decision memorandum issued by Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L) Frank Kendall, which instructs the Air Force to “aggressively introduce a competitive procurement environment” for EELV and identify “up to 14 missions that should be competed as early as 2015.”
The senators said that new entrants to the EELV program may be certified this year, and if there is more than one certified provider capable of executing any Air Force launch, those missions should be competed. United Launch Alliance (ULA) is the incumbent provider of national security space launches. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is in the process of certification for EELV launches. It has a launch scheduled for Thursday that could be part of the certification process for national security launches.
The Air Force, citing the health of its Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite constellation, is pushing five next-generation GPS III launch missions past FY ’17 and delaying two other missions. These five GPS III missions will still be competed, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Director of Space Programs, Maj. Gen. Robert McMurry, told reporters last month. Of the other two non-GPS III missions, McMurry said, one given back to ULA will not be competed. The other will still be competed, though McMurry didn’t specify when. The Air Force said in its budget request it wanted to defer two GPS III satellites beyond FY ’19.
Air Force Secretary Deborah James defended the plan to delay competed launches in front of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee (SAC-D). James said the Air Force plans to have competition for all launches by 2017. James said the Air Force hopes new entrants will be certified for “lighter” EELV launches by the end of 2014, but that under the service’s own scenario, new entrants won’t be qualified for “heavier” EELV missions until 2017. The GPS satellites are characterized as “lighter” launches and can be launched with Atlas V-level launch vehicles while “heavy” satellites like spy satellites produced by the National Reconnaissance Organization (NRO), require more-capable rockets. ULA last August launched the NRO’s NROL-65 satellite using its Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle.
James told reporters after the hearing the Air Force is not skittish on allowing new entrants to launch national security satellites.
“New entrants are building a different form of a track record through the qualification process,” she said. “So I won’t be skittish, let’s put it that way. I won’t be. We just need to get them qualified.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said during the hearing he and SAC-D Chairman Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) would ensure the Air Force is not reducing competition to EELV but instead simply reducing the number of launches necessary in the upcoming years.