In a plan that would ultimately cut billions from existing Pentagon programmes, at least one space project is safe, according to US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
The US Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) programme was among the projects Gates said would actually increase in procurement under his cost saving measures. The EELV is necessary to "to assure access to space for both military and other government agencies while sustaining our industrial base," the Pentagon says. Funds to speed up the procurement would come from trimming other air service programmes, including consolidating two air operations centres in the US and two in Europe.
The EELV, originally conceived in the 1990s, is replacing the US's legacy launch systems with two families of launch vehicles, common components and common infrastructure. Space-lift under the modernization project - which yielded the Boeing Delta IV and Lockheed Martin Atlas V - are an estimated 25 percent lower than launches with legacy Atlas, Delta and Titan space launch systems.
The comprehensive, Pentagon-wide saving effort began last May, with a directive going out to the services to find at least $100 billion in savings that could be sifted to higher priority programmes. More cuts - mostly poorly performing acquisition programmes and personnel - announced 6 January would take the savings to $178 billion over the next five years, Gates says.
Source: Flight International
