August 30, 2006 :: MarketWatch :: News
The Pentagon may delay deployment of the third geosynchronous satellite for the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) program due to budget constraints. SBIRS is intended as a constellation of high-orbiting infrared satellites designed to detect and track ballistic missiles of all sizes. It would include three large satellites that would circle the earth in high geosynchronous orbit, looking for missile launches and other threats. Each satellite would cover about a third of the earth’s surface, with additional help from two smaller polar-orbiting satellites and ground systems. In addition to their primary mission of detecting missile launches, the SBIRS satellites would also have sensors to track moving targets and perform a range of other duties for intelligence analysts and battlefield commanders. SBIRS would replace the aging Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites, which have provided early missile warning information for over 30 years.
Despite the program’s necessity, SBIRS is now considered a “prime target” as the Pentagon assembles its budget proposal for fiscal year 2008. To make room for more fighters and tankers, the U.S. Air Force may be forced to postpone purchasing the third SBIRS satellite. If the Air Force delays the third SBIRS satellite, it could potentially eliminate about $320 million from its FY 2008 plans and postpone about $1.3 billion in near-term follow-on funding, says defense analyst Jim McAleese of McAleese and Associates, a Washington-area government contracting law firm. Baseline SBIRS research funding on $700 million would probably continue, but purchases and deployments would be postponed, perhaps indefinitely. “The war on terror has significantly changed this administration’s focus on space. The levels of space funding growth that we initially anticipated at the beginning of Donald Rumsfeld’s tenure are not achievable,” McAleese said. (Article)
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