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U.S. Plans II: Lagging Satellites Jeopardize Midcourse System Two planned U.S. Defense Department satellites are behind schedule and over budget, jeopardizing White House plans for a ground-based missile defense system, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see GSN, Sept. 3). Program restructuring has pushed back the timeline for developing the Space-Based Infrared Satellites — SBIRS-High and SBIRS-Low — so that their first launches are not planned until 2006 (see GSN, Sept. 4). The Bush administration had hoped to field an initial version of a ground-based missile defense system by early 2004, but both delayed satellites are crucial to the system’s success, according to the Journal. The Pentagon does have satellites that were built and launched to track Soviet-era ICBMs, but SBIRS-High would detect smaller missiles, according to defense officials. The system’s primary contractor, Lockheed Martin, is faced with $2.15 billion in unexpected costs, and the U.S. Air Force has restructured the development schedule to cover the funding shortfall and delays. Company officials have said they now hope to deliver the first sensor for the system in 2003 and launch the satellite in 2006. Air Force Undersecretary Peter Teets said he was “reasonably confident” that the program would be successful under its new structure. “Almost all of the space programs are in trouble and that costs billions of dollars more than expected,” Air Force Secretary James Roche said. Positioned in a lower orbit, SBIRS-Low would track a missile throughout its flight so forces could shoot it down. There is no comparable system currently deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported. Development plans for SBIRS-Low also have recently been restructured, allowing for a planned launch in 2006. “Lots of decisions were made in a tight funding environment that in the collective were unrealistically optimistic,” said John Hamre, president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former U.S. defense secretary (Anne Marie Squeo, Wall Street Journal, Dec. 2).
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