Posted on 03/23/2018 10:57:55 AM PDT by Elderberry
The satellite communications industry was shocked to see a $600 million addition for WGS-11 and WGS-12.
WASHINGTON — In a surprise last-minute add-on, House appropriators included $600 million in the Air Force budget for two high-capacity communications satellites made by Boeing that the Pentagon did not request.
The omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year 2018 funds two Wideband Global SATCOM satellites, WGS-11 and WGS-12. The Air Force did not request funding for these spacecraft nor were these satellites included in any previous marks of the congressional defense committees, or in the fiscal year 2019 budget request.
This was a very large “out of cycle” addition, the consulting firm Jacques & Associates said in an email.
This action caught the satellite communications industry completely off guard. Commercial satellite services providers, particularly, had been told that the Pentagon would not buy any more WGS satellites beyond number 10. WGS-9 was deployed last year, and WGS-10 is scheduled for launch in 2019. Air Force and DoD officials had been talking for months about a plan to move forward with a “hybrid” architecture for future military communications that would include a mix of government-owned satellites and commercial services.
The appropriators justified the additional funds for “Wideband Gapfiller Satellites” as a necessary hedge, to ensure the Air Force is able to recapitalize multiple constellations that will require replacements in the coming decade — space situation awareness, positioning, navigation, and timing, weather, missile warning, wideband communications and protected communications. The bill directs the secretary of the Air Force to “provide a report to the congressional defense committees not later than 60 days after the enactment of this Act, that examines the recapitalization plans for the major systems noted above, certifies that decisions to recapitalize versus continue production of current designs pose acceptable risks to constellation sustainment
(Excerpt) Read more at spacenews.com ...
Always good to have spares...........just in case..............
So do they have to spend it or not?
Sadly, looks like it’s the newest spending bucket of crap.
Wonder whose state is building those monstrosities...
If they don’t spend it, they’ll get shorted in the next budget cycle.
Very disappointed that Trump did not veto this bill and make those congressional SOB go back and work it right. The only part of Trump’s agenda that was included in the bill was defense and according to this article there was more pork in that part than is necessary
pay off to Boeing..
Of course they will spend it! The money will be used to buy a couple dozen MILSPEC hammers or four dozen toilet seats.
If they do spend it, they might hear You’re Fired.
So whether they spend it depends on the law, on the need, on whether the agency head is in favor of downsizing or not and whether that agency head can convince Trump the money wasn’t wasted.
Don’t you know that those $400 hammers is really code for black ops and other secret stuff? That’s how they launder money to those activities.
Maybe $600M in ‘black projects’, maybe $600M in ‘pork’. What’s $600M in a $1.3 trillion budget that has not been read? After all, it’s only money! After all, you can’t take it with you! </sarc>
Pres. Trump not only indicated that the lion’s share weight of the Omnibus spending bill is Section 8-compliant, military-related spending, but he told Congress that he’s not going to sign any more bills like that.
Yes, Democrats won a few things with the bill. But Trump said that patriots won more than Dems did.
Black Ops Budget Place Holder....
More spending provisions such as this will be found as the full 2,000+ pages are digested.
Republicans never spend like this unless they are in charge of spending.
A lot of those dollars find their way back to Washington ending up in the pockets of Senators and Congressmen as thinly disguised campaign contributions.
Politicians don't care how much they extort from taxpayers as long as their personal balance sheets show increases at the end of the year.
President Trump says he wants to change the corrupt Deep State and I believe he does.
But the professional pols would bump him off before they let him dismantle their Pay-For-Play system.
oh look - hidden money for the wall ;)
I wish my family's budget worked that way.
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