Sticker Shock

To slow down satellite programs, Congress clips their budget lines.

Congress appears determined to clip the wings of two big-ticket satellite programs considered central to the military's vision of an Internet- style communications network for combat forces and intelligence gatherers. Defense Department overseers in the House and Senate worry that the Air Force is rushing the satellites into development before crucial technologies are mature, causing costs to rise. Lawmakers want to cut hundreds of millions from the Transformational Satellite Communications and Space Radar programs in order to slow them down.

Neither system is due to begin operating until well into the next decade, but action by three House and Senate committees early in the 2006 appropriations cycle has put their futures in question. In May, the House and Senate Armed Services committees recommended the administration's budget request be cut 33 percent to 56 percent for Space Radar and 24 percent to 48 percent for Transformational Satellite Communications (TSAT). The House Appropriations Committee followed suit in June. If the cuts hold, they will multiply the effects of cuts last year that nearly terminated Space Radar and forced both programs to restructure. Experts say neither system is likely to meet its hoped-for launch date.

In fiscal and physical respects, TSAT and Space Radar are no different from most of the Pentagon's major space projects. They promise technological advancements to transform the way decision-makers obtain and use information. Their cost estimates are high-TSAT at $31 billion and Space Radar at $34 billion-and lawmakers are skeptical about De-fense's ability to manage them. "Over the past decade and a half, virtually all space acquisition programs have experienced significant cost overruns and schedule delays," says Rep. Terry Everett, R-Ala., chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.

TSAT will be the backbone of an "Internet in the sky" for warfighters and spies, in which individual satellites operate as data routers in space. The laser-optic system would enable resilient, jam-resistant communications on the move among thousands of users with portable dish antennas. The first satellite in a constellation of six is due for launch in 2013.

Built to take advantage of a powerful new communications network, Space Radar would use TSAT to beam split-second images of moving targets to troops on land, at sea or in the air. The first of an undetermined number of satellites is due for launch in 2015.

Lawmakers want to sharpen Defense's focus on cheap, innovative improvements to operational responsiveness. While trimming the big programs, the authorizers added tens of millions of dollars to support development of a small, one-size-fits-all satellite platform that can carry a variety of modular payloads.

"It's pretty clear Congress isn't ready to fund these kinds of new, challenging and expensive programs, no matter how good they might be," says Robert Dickman, a retired major general who oversaw Transformational Communications, Space Radar and other major programs during a lengthy Air Force career.

Dickman was the Air Force undersecretary's deputy for military space in January when he was named executive director of the Washington-based American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He says the retirement of Undersecretary Peter Teets-which left the Air Force without a top-level civilian executive who is steeped in the space business-has hurt the military space programs in Congress. On June 28, President Bush nominated veteran astronaut Ronald M. Sega, currently director of Defense research and engineering at the Pentagon, to replace Teets.

Observers are eager to see whether the situation changes with the anticipated release of a presidential directive on military space activities. The New York Times reported May 18 that the policy will call for increased U.S. presence in space through both satellites and weapons.