Rocky Mountain News August 9, 2004
Budget cuts darken future of satellite radar program
By Roger Fillion, Rocky Mountain News
The future of an ambitious space-based radar that Lockheed Martin Corp. hopes to build for the Pentagon has been thrown into disarray after Congress swung a budget ax into the program.
The funding cuts, contained in the $416 billion defense bill President Bush signed last week, are expected to slow the radar's deployment - at the least.
The SBR, as it's dubbed, would be a constellation of satellites that would track the movement of ground targets. The program's price tag ultimately is expected to be tens of billions of dollars.
Lockheed's Space Systems division in Jefferson County is competing against Northrop Grumman Corp. to be the SBR's prime contractor.
About 130 employees at Lockheed's Waterton Canyon facilities have been working on the program during the development phase.
But Congress recently slashed the program's funding. Lawmakers earmarked $75 million for the SBR, $252 million less than the Air Force had requested for the next fiscal year.
Lawmakers cited program costs that ultimately could top $60 billion. A report by a House Appropriations panel also warned that the SBR wouldn't generate the results backers claim it will.
"With the amount of money we've been given, we're not going to be able to move as quickly as we initially had wanted to," said Air Force spokeswoman Maj. Karen Finn. "We still want this. But we have to restructure this so it comes along at a more measured pace."
The Air Force earlier had been expected to pick the SBR's prime contractor in 2006. The initial satellite launch had been set for 2012.
Finn said the Air Force doesn't have a launch date for the SBR "at this date."
In April, the Air Force awarded $220 million study contracts to both Lockheed and Northrop to develop an SBR system as part of the bidding process.
Lockheed spokesman Evan McCollum said the company doesn't know what impact the cuts might have. Lockheed is awaiting formal word from the Air Force.
"If the program sustains significant cuts and the schedule is affected, the number of people we devote to the program is likely to change," McCollum said.
"We would not anticipate any layoffs as a result of this. If fewer people are needed on this program, we would anticipate reassigning people to other current programs."
The SBR would comprise a network of satellites designed to provide "rapid-revisit coverage" of the entire Earth's surface. The satellites would beam "real-time" imagery and intelligence back to Earth.
Lockheed has said the system could be made up of low-Earth orbiting satellites or medium-Earth orbiting satellites - or a combination of the two.
John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense policy group, said the Air Force found it tough to pitch Congress on the kind of military "problem" the SBR was "supposed to solve."
"They've had a hard time getting their ducks lined up in terms of cost, performance, schedule and risk," he said.
But Pike doesn't expect the Air Force to scrap the SBR.
"They're going to have to reformulate the thing," he said, noting that the Air Force has been looking at the program "for a long time."
Asked whether the Air Force might abandon the plan, Finn said: "We hope not. This is the type of technology we want to be able to move toward."
© Copyright 2004, Rocky Mountain News
