The Air Force is preparing to discontinue operations of its legacy Space Fence, known as the Air Force Space Surveillance System (AFSSS), despite previously pushing back the contract award for its new Space Fence due to sequestration-related budget cuts.
The Air Force said yesterday shutting down AFSSS could save the service approximately $14 million per year starting in fiscal year 2014, or Oct. 1. By discontinuing operations, the AFSSS would not be maintained in operational status, but the service also said it would not remove equipment until a final disposition determination is made. Final decisions on all FY ’14 budget issues will be made over the next few weeks.
 |
| Space Fence program view. Photo: Lockheed Martin. |
It is unclear how this will affect the competition for the new Space Fence, which Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Raytheon [RTN] are competing for. Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) chief Gen. William Shelton said in July the $3.5 billion award is being held up while the Defense Department determines if it is a priority in this era of declining defense budgets. Representatives from both Lockheed Martin and Raytheon declined comment yesterday. The new Space Fence is scheduled to eventually replace AFSSS.
The Air Force notified the vendor, Five River Services LLC, that it will most likely not exercise the next contract option beginning Oct. 1, according to a statement. Five River Services President Lori Thomas yesterday declined to comment.
Air Force spokesman Andy Roake said yesterday although the service will not yet remove equipment, there are no plans at the time to return the sites to operational use. Roake said discontinued operations means the AFSSS will no longer be operational and will not be maintained in any fashion (utilities, security and environmental control, among others) unless lease agreements state otherwise.
The Air Force has devised modified operating modes for the Perimeter Acquisition Radar Characterization System at Cavalier Air Force Station, N.D., and for the space surveillance radar at Eglin AFB, Fla., which allows the discontinuation of AFSSS operations while still maintaining solid space situational awareness (SSA). When asked for specifics about the modified operating modes, Roake said he was unable to comment by press time, but the Air Force said in its statement the new operating modes at Cavalier and Eglin will provide more accuracy than the AFSSS and still collect un-cued observations, rather than tracking objects based on previous information.
The AFSSS, also known as VHF Fence, is a series of three transmitters and six receivers along the 33rd parallel stretching across the southern United States. The three transmitter sites are located at Jordan Lake, Ala.; Lake Kickapoo, Texas; and Gila River, Ariz. The six receivers are located at Tattnall, Ga.; Hawkinsville, Ga.; Silver Lake, Miss.; Red River, Ark.; Elephant Butte, N.M.; and San Diego, Calif. The two receiver sites at Tattnall and Silver Lake were deactivated in April.
Shelton said in July the Air Force was determining if it could make improvements or start a service life extension program (SLEP) for a space sensor located at Eglin. An AN/FPS-85 phased array radar at Eglin, built in 1969, performs space surveillance and reconnaissance with day and night detection, tracking and identification of man-made objects in Earth orbit in all types of weather, according to the Air Force (Defense Daily, July 17).
Air Force civilian leaders said in April they thought the new Space Fence competition was on “good footing” because it made it into President Barack Obama’s FY ’14 budget request. But Acting Air Force Under Secretary Jamie Morin said at the time even if programs make it into the budget request, they are not protected from budget challenges (Defense Daily, April 16).
The AFSSS, which has been in operation since 1961, is just one part of the Air Force’s global space surveillance network. The system is designed to transmit a “fence” of radar energy vertically into space to detect all objects intersecting that fence. The operational advantage of AFSSS is its ability to detect objects in an un-cued fashion. The disadvantage is the inherent inaccuracy of the data, based on its dated design.