Air Force Asked to Reinstate Satellite Program

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott asked the Air Force to reverse a decision to cancel contracts with Boeing Co. and TRW Inc. that were intended to demonstrate that it’s feasible to build a system of low-orbit satellites capable of detecting and tracking ballistic missiles fired at the U.S.

The Air Force announced Feb. 5 it had canceled the contracts with the nation’s No. 2 and No. 10 defense contractors, because of steep cost overruns. The two companies’ Southern California operations were leading the efforts on the project.

Lott (R-Miss.) and fellow Sens. John W. Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Bob Smith (R-N.H.), chairman of the Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces, wrote Acting Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters on Thursday and urged him to reverse the decision.

“We believe these actions to be unwise, unjustified and inconsistent with the courtesy normally extended to Congress with regard to major program decisions,” they wrote.

The senators did not elaborate on why they didn’t want to see the space-based infrared system, or SBIRS-low, canceled, but cost overruns were an invalid reason, they said.

The senators said the Air Force is facing potentially huge cost overruns on other programs such as the joint strike fighter without canceling them.

“To so abruptly change course undermines the will of Congress and creates the potential for serious funding and force structure problems,” the senators wrote.

Cleveland-based TRW is the world’s No. 1 maker of automotive air bags, and high-energy lasers and satellites. The cancellations affect TRW’s Space and Electronics Group in Redondo Beach, where 170 people work on the SBIRS-low program.

Seattle-based Boeing, the maker of commercial aircraft as well as the F-15 and F/A-18 fighter jets, also is affected.

Boeing North American Inc.’s Satellite & Control Systems unit has a total of 150 people working on the program in Seal Beach and Anaheim.

TRW was working on the demonstration project with Raytheon Co., and Boeing’s subcontractors included Lockheed Martin Corp. Together, the projects employed about 1,000 workers, with roughly 600 in Southern California.

Assuming the administration’s cancellation decision remains in effect, the two defense firms lose their initial contracts for building satellite prototypes for $830 million, but they also have at risk additional contracts to build the actual 24-satellite network for billions of dollars.