According to a DOD Buzz report, Pentagon acquisition boss Ash Carter has given the Air Force 30 days to offer its solution—with a cost estimate—to replace the now-defunct NPOESS weather satellite program. The Administration revealed the dissolution of the tri-agency—USAF, NASA, and NOAA—program earlier this year. USAF space acquisition chief Gary Payton said in February that the service would concentrate its future effort on covering the early-morning orbit with a spacecraft that meets military needs. The Administration said acquisition should start for this new satellite in late Fiscal 2011. However, the House Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces panel, led by Rep. James Langevin (D-R.I.), trimmed $300 million from the program for lack of a clear restructure plan. Air Force Space Command head Gen. Bob Kehler and Payton last month told lawmakers requirements were getting a thorough scrub. (Langevin markup remarks)
The Space Force is playing midwife to a new ecosystem of commercial satellite constellations providing alternatives to the service’s own Global Positioning Service from much closer to the Earth, making their signals more accurate and harder to jam.
