Senate Appropriators Cut, Reconfigure EELV FY2014 Funding, Add Money for ORS

The Senate Appropriations Committee cut $150 million from DOD’s FY2014 funding request for procurement of Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs) and split the remaining funds into two separate accounts.  It also added $10 million for Operationally Responsive Space (ORS).

In its report on the FY2014 defense appropriations bill (S. 1429, S. Rept. 113-85), the committee complained about the “lack of visibility” into EELV funding and called $150 million of the $1.852 billion request an “unjustified increase.”   It wants to split the procurement request into one line for launch services and another for “launch capability and associated costs.”   For FY2014, the committee would allocate $974 million for the former and $729 million for the latter. It also directs the Secretary of the Air Force to identify specifically which funds are requested in FY2015 and beyond for the sole source block buy of EELVs from the incumbent provider, United Launch Alliance (ULA), versus those requested to support a competitive award of services between ULA and new entrants like SpaceX.

The committee also added $10 million to fund the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) program for FY2014.   DOD wants to terminate ORS.  It proposed that course of action last year and Congress disagreed.   In the FY2013 defense appropriations bill, Congress provided $105 million for ORS in accordance with the FY2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).  The NDAA directed DOD to use the funds to develop a low cost weather satellite to replace the canceled Defense Weather Satellite System (DWSS, which was the replacement for DOD’s portion of the NPOESS program).  DOD has not yet complied — instead it again proposes terminating ORS in the FY2014 request — and the committee now is directing the Secretary of the Air Force to submit a report describing how it plans to  execute the plan directed in the FY2013 NDAA.  The report is due within 30 days of enactment of this FY2014 appropriations bill. 

Among its other space-related adjustments, the committee —

• encourages the Army to apply “appropriate resources to ensure cyberspace technologies research for the security of space assets”‘
• cuts SBIRS-High in the Air Force RDT&E account by $29.7 million (from the request of $352.5 million)
• cuts Polar Milsatcom in the Air Force RDT&E account by $15 million (from the request of $124.8 million)
• cuts Milsatcom (Space) in the Air Force procurement account by $45 million (from the request of $105.9 million)
• cuts Milsatcom terminals in the Air Force RDT&E account by $45 million (from the request of $140 million)
• cuts NUDET detection system (space) in the Air Force RDT&E account by $8 million (from the request of $50.5 million)
• cuts Space and Missile Center civilian workforce in the Air Force RDT&E account by $6 million (from the request of $192 million)
• cuts GPS III space segment in the Air Force missile procurement account by $5 million (from the request of $403 million)
• cuts Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) by $9.8 million (from the request of $95.7 million) in the Air Force’s “missile procurement” account and another $2 million (from a request of $37.8 million) in the Air Force’s “other procurement” account
• adds $51 million to the $45 million requested for Defense Space Reconnaissance Program in the Air Force procurement account