HASC Subcommittee Cuts Unclassified National Security Space Programs by $182 Million

The Subcommittee on Strategic Forces of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) cut $182 million from the $9.9 billion FY2011 request for unclassified national security space programs today. A committee press release lists the following additions and reductions:

• includes $50 million for the Air Force to continue developing future protected communications satellite technologies because the TSAT program has been terminated
• adds $40 million for Operationally Responsive Space (ORS)
• adds $51.2 million for Army procurement of Defense Advanced GPS Receivers
• adds $28 million for Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles “to achieve a common upper stage between the Atlas and Delta launch vehicles, enabling efficient use of the existing RL-10 rocket engine inventory”
• adds $5 million to support Navy mitigation measures to augment the declining UHF narrow-band communications capacity
• cuts NPOESS by $300 million because of a lack of a clear strategy for the program
• cuts $40.9 million from High Integrity GPS
• cuts $30 million from the Space Based Surveillance System, and
• authorizes the National Air and Space Intelligence Center to conduct original intelligence analysis and requires congressional notification of “changes in the lead integrator for foreign space and counterspace intelligence analysis”