The Gazette January 15, 2012

Secret space center to lose more than half its civilian workers

By Tom Roeder

A secretive innovation center at Schriever Air Force Base will lose more than half of its civilian employees, a detailed examination of Pentagon budget cutting plans shows.

Of 130 civilians working at Schriever’s Space Innovation and Development Center, 78 will lose their jobs. The cuts at the center, which also has 248 airmen on staff, represent nearly one fifth of the Air Force’s planned 411 civilian job cuts statewide.

The payroll reductions come as the Pentagon figures out ways to carve $100 billion from its $700 billion annual budget and may be a sign that services are willing to sacrifice efforts to obtain the next generation of technology in favor of keeping what they already have.

The center is at the core of Space Command’s efforts to revolutionize how the military uses satellite technology in combat. Commanded by a colonel, it is a research hub that develops new technology, conducts war games and figures out how to integrate American space assets, including those run by top-secret agencies, into combat.

In a statement, Air Force Space Command spokesman Andy Roake said: “We’ll continue to provide the essential services and ensure our sustained excellence in support of the missions our nation depends upon.”

Brian Binn, who oversees military affairs for the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce, called the cuts at the center “disconcerting.”

Binn, a retired Air Force officer, said civilians provide high levels of experience and provide critical institutional knowledge for the Defense Department. That’s important in the military workplace where troops constantly rotate through.

Under Air Force plans, at least some of the civilians will be replaced by active-duty troops. Roake said the extent of those moves won’t be clear until Congress acts on a 2013 defense spending plan.

Observers say in the long term, Colorado Springs’ Air Force Space Command and units under it could fare better than other sectors of the military as the Pentagon budget shrinks.

“We may need fewer Army divisions or fewer carriers, but the number of GPS satellites we need is the same,” said John Pike, who heads the Virginia-based defense think tank GlobalSecurity.org.

But technological leaps, like those developed at the center, may not be in the playbook, Pike said.

“There’s a lot of nice to have stuff that, if they get into a tight budget environment, becomes a lot of superfluous stuff that’s not essential to victory,” Pike said.

Most of the work at the center is classified.

Founded after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, it is responsible for programs including one called “Air Force Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities.” “National Capabilities” means spy satellites in Pentagonese.

Other space innovations the Air Force is pursuing include baseball-sized communication and navigation satellites and a “launch on demand” program that would put new satellites in space as quickly as they are needed.