Re: SBIRS HEO, TRUMPET FO slippage
From: Allen Thomson (thomsona_at_flash.net)
Date: 03/25/05
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Date: 25 Mar 2005 08:37:31 -0800
Lockheed US satellite program could reach $12 bln
Tue Mar 22, 2005 01:38 PM ET
WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) - A Lockheed Martin Corp.
satellite system to provide early warning of enemy missile
attacks could eventually cost around $12 billion, up from
recent estimates of around $10 billion, Acting Air Force
Secretary Peter Teets said on Tuesday. Teets, who retires
on Friday, called the Space-Based Infrared System (SBRIS)
High program "a huge national priority" and said he saw
little alternative to restructuring and adding funds to a
program initially expected to cost $4 billion. But he said
he was "very unhappy" about its continued cost overruns.
"I agree it is a snake pit program."
Teets, who also serves as the top U.S. military space
official, told lawmakers in a March 11 letter that the cost
of the third through fifth satellites to be built under the
SBRIS program was expected to rise more than 15 percent in
fiscal year 2006 and possibly as much as 25 percent.
Teets told reporters on Tuesday that the Air Force was
working closely with Lockheed and Northrop Grumman Corp.,
which builds the main infrared sensors for the satellites, to
get the program on track and "stop this bleeding."
"I'm not very happy with the performance of Lockheed Martin
on SBRIS," he said, adding Lockheed was well aware of that.
Teets said he was uncertain if the average production unit
cost increases for the third through fifth satellites would
hit a 25 percent threshold that would require the Air Force
to justify continuation of the program on national security
grounds.
If that turned out to be the case, Teets said the Air Force
would examine other alternatives -- including possibly
scrapping the program, although he downplayed that
possibility given the need to replace expiring Defense
Support Program (DSP) satellites sometime around 2015.
Further delays in the SBRIS program could start to "paint a
difficult picture" from around 2010, he said, although he
said he did not foresee a gap in U.S. satellite coverage
since the DSP satellites were lasting around 10 years, and
the final one in that group would not be launched until later
this year.
SBRIS High was completely restructured in 2002, when its cost
growth exceeded 25 percent, but its costs went 15 percent over
budget again in 2004.
Teets said the program was poorly structured from the outset,
but the Air Force has now realized that it needs to better
independently make cost estimates when it competitively bids
projects like SBRIS.
In hindsight, he said the current problems might have been
avoided if the Air Force had added more money and further
extended its timetable during the first restructuring in 2002.
However, he noted there were certain unforeseen problems,
including electromagnetic interference, that would have been
difficult to predict in any event.
"We still have a lot of hard work on SBRIS," he said.
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