Ken Krieg, the DOD acquisition czar, has told lawmakers that the Pentagon would decide by mid December the fate of the Space-Based Infrared Radar System High program. The SIBRS High satellite program has been under review since August, when the Air Force notified Congress that it would overshoot its budget again, violating the Nunn-McCurdy 25 percent increase rule.
The Space Force wants to launch hundreds of satellites in the coming years—and use contractor spacecraft to sweep them out of orbit later. The service’s Space Development Agency and the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit announced a trio of preliminary contracts for their Deorbit-as-a-Service project on Aug. 14, to Firefly Aerospace,…