By Marina Malenic
Boeing [BA] executives said yesterday that they are awaiting Pentagon decisions on which capabilities from a now-canceled major satellite communications program will be harvested and inserted into its Wideband Global Satellite (WGS) constellation.
Over $3 billion had been spent on the Air Force’s secure Transformational Satellite (TSAT) program before it was terminated last year, according to Craig Cooning, Boeing’s vice president for space and intelligence systems.
“The government still has to pick what the requirements are,” Cooning told reporters at the Satellite 2010 conference here. “That’s what they’re struggling with at” U.S. Strategic Command.
Cooning said that the mobile communications, laser communications, anti-jamming and enhanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities in the TSAT architecture can all be harvested if the Defense Department chooses.
He said there is “plenty of mass and power” available on the WGS constellation for such technology insertions.
Air Force officials have said in recent weeks that they expect to insert TSAT capabilities onto existing satellites, including WGS and Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) program. Defense Secretary Robert Gates decided last year to terminate TSAT, which had been envisioned as a replacement for AEHF.
Cooning added that he expects the military to reach a decision on what to do with TSAT technologies within a year or so. He blamed the program’s cost increases–a primary reason Gates gave for termination–on the Air Force’s requirement that the satellite be capable of operating in the wake of a nearby nuclear explosion.
The company also hopes to sell more WGS satellites in coming years, according to executives. The Air Force had issued a request for proposals (RFP) for up to six more, with two of those funded in the president’s fiscal 2011 budget request.
Boeing is also anticipating a draft RFP from the Air Force for a follow-on Space-Based Surveillance Satellite (SBSS) next month.
Cooning revealed that Boeing had offered the government a fixed-price offer on a second SBSS satellite at a “significant” cost savings. The first satellite cost around $800 million, he said. The Air Force has decided to compete the contract.
Boeing executives also said that they expect their military space business to decline slightly over the coming years due to the projected slowdown in Pentagon spending growth. While military orders currently account for some 90 percent of the company’s space business, that number is expected to go down to about 70 percent, according to Boeing.
The company has 10 satellites awaiting launch this year, including two that were delayed last year.