The 2022 spending bill added nearly $1.3 billion to the programs of the US Space Forces and space development agencies, in addition to what the Biden administration had been requesting.
WASZYNGTON – Defense Expenditure Calculation 2022 An Congress is over Last week, the Pentagon gave $728.5 billion — 32.5 billion more than it allotted for 2021.
Military space programs have gained a lot of momentum. The sources added nearly $1.3 billion for projects for the US Space Force and the Space Development Agency, in addition to what the Biden administration was requesting.
President Biden is expected to sign the $1.5 trillion federal spending bill before current funding expires on March 15. The government has been operating on an ongoing basis since the start of the 2022 fiscal year, which began on October 1.
Congress added $1.3 billion to space-led technology development projects to fund military space, pay for an additional Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite, and increase spending on small launch services and a missile detection satellite for the Space Development Agency (SDA).
One of the biggest budget items is a $550 million missile-tracking satellite demonstration that will be developed by SDA. US Military Command in the Indo-Pacific.
“Threats are driving spending on space,” said Peter Garritson, a space and defense adviser and a senior member of the US Foreign Policy Council. He said China’s recent deals in advanced space technology have not gone unnoticed, and concerns about Russian aggression have grown.
SDA is building a large network of satellites in low Earth orbit to detect and track enemy missiles and transmit data around the world. Increasing the agency’s budget “is absolutely the right thing to do at this point,” Garretson said. “I hope that SDA, with its multiple layers of satellites, will put the Department of Defense back in the game of rapid innovation and technological development.”
Congressional Concerns
The money added to military space programs reflects concerns that defense professionals have voiced for years.
Year after year, he said, Congress “urges the Department of Defense to make space a priority.” With the increase of the 2022 law, they are “fixing their money.”
Tierney noted that the statement of expenditures also includes critical language for the Department of Defense’s Space Programs Department, and calls on the Space Forces to integrate advanced commercial technologies into military systems.
For example, homeowners previously held off funding from the Space Warfare Analysis Center (SWAC), an organization set up to design military space architecture using digital modeling and simulation. The 2022 Act approved the $37 million requested by the Department of Defense for the SWAC program, but cautioned that “concerns remain that Space Forces analysis and decision-making are too complex and complex.”
In a report accompanying the Defense Spending Act, Congress demands “clarification of the roles and responsibilities of senior civilian and military commanders responsible for space,” and an explanation of space resource units, including SWAC, the Space Development Agency, and Rapid Space. office, and space programs in the Air Force Quick Capabilities Management Office.
Congress also appears to be frustrated with the Space Force’s outdated approach to purchasing new systems that do not take advantage of commercial innovations in areas such as communications, space awareness, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
The law states that the Department of Defense and the Space Force “publicly advocated hybrid space engineering that includes a mix of government and commercial space services and vehicles,” but the Space Force is slowly setting commercial priorities in its engineering. Congress is asking the Department of Defense to provide a “strategy for integrating commercial satellites across all mission groups.”
Big boost to small takeoff, missile defense
The 2022 military spending bill added $70 million for small start services, including $20 million for the Missile Launch Systems program and $50 million for a new program called Tactically Responsive Launch.
“That’s a huge amount for a small start,” Tierney said. But this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Over the past few years, he said, Congress has been constantly beating the drums for the Department of Defense to increase funding for services to small startups.
Small companies like Virgin Orbit and Rocket Lab are calling for more support from the Department of Defense, arguing that the Department of Defense needs to maintain multiple commercial sources of launch services to be able to respond to emergencies, such as in the case of damage and new US satellites. . It should be published soon.
He said the $70 million increase could give a boost to a young prime minister after “years of Congressional action”.
With an addition of $550 million to the SDA missile tracking satellites, Tierney described this as strong support for the agency’s plan to use low-Earth orbit satellites for critical military capabilities.
Initially, the Senate pumped $750 million into the Indo-Pacific demonstration, but the House of Representatives backed down. Tierney said their final bargain for $550 million shows the impact of China’s test of hypersonic missiles. “Congress is giving them a massive amount of money to prosecute as part of this important, priority national security mission.”
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