Lawmakers add funds for HBTSS, delay testing until 2023

摘要

Lawmakers have delayed a statutory deadline for on-orbit testing of the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor from the end of 2022 to the end of 2023, authorized additional spending and definitively assigned the Missile Defense Agency responsibility for developing the new payload project. The House-Senate conference version of the defense policy bill would authorize $120 million for HBTSS, a $100 million boost above DOD's FY-21 request. Since FY-18, Congress has added money annually to fund HBTSS - a project initiated by MDA and then folded into an effort to develop a proliferated low earth orbit (pLEO) constellation overseen by the Space Development Agency to execute as many as eight missions, including persistent surveillance for advanced missile targeting - particularly hypersonic and ballistic missiles.