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Air Force Claims It Needs $2.2 billion More a Year for Space Assets
By Stew Magnuson
Spacenews.com Staff Writer
posted: 05:05 pm ET
12 January 2001
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WASHINGTON The UWASHINGTON The U.S. Air Force will require an additional $2.2 billion per year by 2008 to properly maintain its space systems through 2020, a senior Pentagon official said Jan. 12. The $2.2 billion per year is only part of an estimated $29 billion per year needed beyond current funding levels "to make the Air Force whole again," said the official, who briefed the media under the condition that he not be named. The funds are needed to modernize an aging aircraft fleet, maintain personnel levels and continue infrastructure development. The numbers were released as the Air Force prepared for the Quadrennial Defense Review, a congressionally mandated report on budget needs due in September. The $2.2 billion for space will be needed to upgrade the evolved expendable launch vehicle program and ground-based communications for space systems, the official said. The Air Force currently spends about $8 billion per year on space programs. The budget estimates do not include findings from the report released Jan. 11 on the Commission on the Organization of National Security Space, also known as the space commission. Nor does it include any unfunded programs such as Discoverer 2, a proposed space-based radar experiment, the official said. The Air Force envisions a largely space-based reconnaissance system by 2020 or 2030 if the technology exists, but funds to develop new programs are not in the pipeline, the official said.
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