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U.S. Defense Department Will Review SBIRS-High Development
The U.S. Defense Department will review the Air Force Space Based Infrared System-High program after congressional auditors warned the missile tracking system could experience more cost increases and schedule delays, Aerospace Daily reported today (see GSN, Oct 23). The schedule for SBIRS-High was restructured in 2002 after defense officials discovered that the program’s cost had grown by more than $2 billion. The first satellite is now due to be launched in 2006, a slip of two years. The General Accounting Office said Friday that prime contractor Lockheed Martin did not, however, address some long-standing concerns identified by an independent review team. “While the Air Force has taken a number of actions as recommended by the IRT to improve program oversight, it has become increasingly evident that the underlying factors that led to the (breaching of the Nunn-McCurdy Act’s cost growth restrictions) — particularly the lack of critical knowledge — continue to cause problems, and additional cost and schedule slips beyond the revised acquisition program baseline appear inevitable,” according to the GAO (Marc Selinger, Aerospace Daily, Nov. 3). The GAO report found that the overall design for SBIRS-High is unstable and the software development and integration efforts are risky. The $8.6 billion price tag for the program could rise by as much as $432 million, according to the GAO (Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg.com, Oct. 31).
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