Satellite Control Systems

The Defense Department (DOD) has not effectively implemented the guidelines for satellite control as set forth in the 1996 national space policy. DOD needs to integrate its satellite control capabilities to reduce costs and inefficiencies. This could be done through standardization and interoperability. Considering the Air Force's need and the Navy's plan to upgrade their satellite control capabilities, now is an opportune time for DOD to consolidate these efforts into an integrated approach. DOD should consider using commercially available products and making a choice based on commercial practices used by leading firms to reduce acquisition risk. DOD has taken limited action to foster integrated and interoperable satellite control for all government space activities.

GAO noted that: (1) DOD has made minimal progress in integrating and improving its satellite control capabilities in accordance with 1996 national space policy; (2) in 1992, DOD identified a need for an integrated satellite control system to achieve standardization and interoperability across military services and individual satellite programs; (3) in 1995, the Air Force, which controls most of DOD's satellites, characterized its satellite control capabilities as aging, inefficient, and costly to operate; (4) the Air Force initiated an effort to standardize these capabilities and achieve full implementation in 2003--a first step toward an integrated and interoperable DOD capability; (5) Air Force officials chose to proceed with a conceptual design over operational alternatives; (6) however, in 1997, the Air Force terminated this effort because of schedule delays resulting from software development problems and the additional amount of software that needed to be written; (7) Air Force Space Command representatives are now recommending that the use of the Air Force's existing satellite control capabilities be extended to 2005 to provide time to acquire an improved capability; (8) until then, the Air Force will be unable to reduce approximately $400 million it spends annually to operate, maintain, sustain, and modernize satellite control capabilities; (9) the Navy's satellite control capabilities are not as old, inefficient, or costly to operate as the Air Force's capabilities; (10) although the Navy upgraded its capabilities in the early 1990s, another upgrade is planned because the company that provided the existing capabilities no longer provides software support services; (11) DOD has taken limited action to foster integrated and interoperable satellite control for all government space activities since it was directed to do so by the 1996 national space policy; (12) although DOD established a senior steering group in 1998 to address national security space management and integration issues, government space agencies continue to plan for satellite control capabilities on an independent basis rather than coordinate and integrate their efforts on an interagency basis; and (13) considering the long-standing need to replace the Air Force's aging and costly satellite control capabilities and the Navy's more recent plan to upgrade its capabilities, DOD has an opportunity to revitalize its effort to achieve integrated satellite control by acquiring a standardized capability.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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