Sbirs Fallout Continues To Mount

摘要

The U.S. Defense Department's plan to quickly procure a brand new satellite to plug a potential gap in the nation's missile early warning constellation is the latest and most troubling fallout yet from the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) acquisition fiasco.rnA sudden degradation of the existing Defense Support Program (DSP) missile warning constellation is what prompted the Pentagon's pending request to reprogram $117 million in 2009 funds for the Geosynchronous Earth Orbit infrared Gap Filler System. But the crash program, which likely will divert funding from other key space initiatives in the next several years, wouldn't be necessary had SBIRS stayed anywhere near its original schedule. When SBIRS was put under contract in 1996, the first launch was slated to occur in 2002. Now, thanks to a dark comedy of errors ranging from misguided acquisition reform practices to U.S. Air Force budgetary shenanigans to the repeated inability of prime contractor Lockheed Martin to deliver what it signed up to deliver, the first satellite is not expected to launch until 2010.