U.S. Services To Build ORS Costs Into Budget Plans
By JOHN T. BENNETT
Published: 4 Nov 2009 10:41
Omaha, Neb. - Under instructions from U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn, the military services are building into their long-term spending plans the costs of quickly putting into orbit crucial space-based tools.
DoD officials speaking at a conference here said the upside of obtaining service dollars means the idea of building task-specific satellites that can be rapidly launched has a better chance of taking root within the U.S. military. The downside, they acknowledge, is that the services must run the gauntlet that is DoD's requirements-development-and-approval process before senior Pentagon brass can even consider annual Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) funding plans.
The ORS concept was born in 2007 as an effort to field smaller satellites and launch platforms that could quickly be developed and launched to meet urgent national security needs. Officials said several ORS studies are underway as part of the effort to pinpoint the kinds of space-based capabilities each service would first seek to replace if new combat requirements emerge or existing space platforms become inoperable.
One is an Air Force Space Command capabilities-based assessment that will highlight "two or three things [each service] would focus rapid-reaction funding on," Navy Capt. Brian Humm, chief of the global ISR and space division at U.S. Strategic Command, said Nov. 3.
While acknowledging the challenges of going through the Pentagon's complex requirements process, officials here said they have no choice but to go this route to tap into the lifeline that is annual service funding.
ORS officials have been using an alternative Pentagon development-and-acquisition process that uses "joint urgent needs statements" to gather and work to meet combatant commanders' most-pressing needs, Humm said.
The first ORS satellite was built to meet a specific combat gap identified by U.S. Central Command officials. The specifics on that need are classified.
That gave ORS-1 "a get-out-of-JROC-free card," Humm quipped, referring to the Pentagon's often-maligned Joint Requirements Oversight Council. That body, composed of the service vice chiefs of staff, reviews and approves all service-generated weapon requirements.
Humm said defense officials envision two "shelves" that would allow the responsive space program office to meet war-fighter needs: one stocked with satellite payload technologies, and another stocked with satellite buses into which specific tools would be installed to meet specific command requirements.
Goodrich's ISR Systems Division is slated to build and do integration work on the ORS-1 satellite. It will ride into orbit aboard an Orbital Sciences Minotaur launch vehicle, according to an Air Force fact sheet. The ORS office is at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.
The Pentagon's 2010 budget request did not ask for all of the funding needed to finish ORS-1 and move toward the program's planned second satellite.
Pentagon sources have said the Air Force indicated it would request $215 million for the initiative in the 2010 spending plan. Ultimately, the service sought only $113 million, and placed the balance on its unfunded requirements list. It remains unclear whether congressional appropriators will provide all $215 million for 2010.
Several industry officials at the conference expressed frustration about how the Pentagon has handled ORS development, as well as work on the similar Tactical Satellite (TacSat) initiative. Industry has not been allowed to review ORS and TacSat drawings and designs, nor has the Pentagon briefed them on what lessons have been captured so far during technology development on both efforts, the industry representatives said.
One industry official said companies "have no solid idea of the requirements ... or the vision for ORS because it's a moving target that always seems to be changing."
Those gripes come weeks after ORS program officials released a draft request for proposals for the second phase of the effort.
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