We won’t know much about it, but protecting America’s military satellites and the data they gather and share is a key target of the 2016 service budget.
Several senior Pentagon budget wallahs declined in the top-level budget briefings today to answer specific questions about the spending levels of what is known as Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and Space Control funding. From conversations with a range of senior Air Force and independent experts over the last three months, it’s clear that substantial money of $1 billion or more is being spent on a range of efforts to guarantee the operation of satellites in a hostile environment.
Expect Congress to be receptive to most space spending because of the threat that senior Pentagon officials say is real and growing fast ever since the Chinese anti-satellite test.
One of the more impressive set of numbers from the 2016 Air Force budget is the five-year Future Year Defense Program (FYDP) spending projected for the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRSB). Funding is planned to double by fiscal 2020 from $1.25 billion in 2016 to $3.79 billion in 2020 for the research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) phase. Those public numbers doubtless conceal substantial classified funding for the bombers.
Todd Harrison, defense budget expert at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, estimates the research and development of the aircraft should cost up to $25 billion, so there would appear to be a great deal left to spend, unless black funding is filling that up unbeknownst to us.
The fate of the U-2 is, again, up in the air. The Global Hawk Block 30 got retired. But it had congressional friends. Then the U-2 was retired in the 2015 budget. Now its “retirement” is on hold til 2019!
Here’s the rationale offered in Air Force budget documents for the latest decision. It was made “in response to current operational requirements and to reduce risk by aligning U-2 divestitures with anticipated fielding of enhanced RQ-4 Block 30 sensors.”/.../