Cuts leave satellite grounded

US plans to award a multibillion-dollar satellite communications contract for a pivotal project are being delayed until 2008 following budget cuts.Teams led by Lockheed Martin and Boeing are vying to build an initial five laser-linked satellites to expand space-based communications systems for the military.

The program is designed to create high-bandwidth satellite links for US forces deployed worldwide. It would hook them into the so-called Global Information Grid, the Pentagon's voice, video and data network.

US President George W Bush's 2007 budget, sent to Congress on Monday, calls for spending $US9.8 billion over the next five years on the project, known as the Transformational Satellite Communications System, or TSAT, the officials said.
Last year, Congress cut planned spending on the program, the Air Force's costliest in space through to the 2011 financial year, by almost half to $US436.8 million, voicing concerns about costs and technology maturity.

The officials, who spoke on the President's space-related plans on condition they not be named, said the budget for the year starting October 1 was aimed at launching the first two TSAT satellites in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, 18 months later than originally planned.
In addition, the US Air Force was scaling back the capacity it would seek in the first two as part of a "walk before you run" approach, the officials said.
In the past, the Air Force has been criticised for moving ahead with complex system-acquisition plans prior to proving that component technologies were sufficiently mature.
The new roadmap for acquiring TSAT is "less of a reach," said one official. It cuts the complexity and capacity of the system's two core technologies - laser communications and an internet-like router, they said.

On January 27, Lockheed Martin was awarded a 10-year, $US2.1 billion contract for the ground-based backbone of the projected system.
Mr Bush is seeking $US9.8 billion for Air Force space programs in fiscal 2007, or 19 per cent of Air Force modernisation spending, up from $US9.3 billion the year before, or 18 per cent of the total, the officials said.

Reuters