Missile Defense: Alternative Approaches to Space Tracking and Surveillance System Need to Be Considered GAO-03-597
Full Report: Missile Defense: Alternative Approaches to Space Tracking and Surveillance System Need to Be Considered GAO-03-597 (Acrobat)
Summary
MDA purposely adopted a strategy that would evolve STSS over time rather than
trying to make a big leap in its capability, deferring some requirements, and
calling for competition in the development of the sensors aboard the satellite.
Recent decisions, however, will limit MDA’s ability to achieve its original goals
as well as the knowledge that could be gained from its satellite demonstrations.
Specifically:
set aside to procure an alternative satellite sensor from a competing
contractor. It now plans to fund only efforts to design an alternative sensor.
If it chooses to pursue STSS as part of the missile defense system, STSS may
end up being more expensive in the future because MDA could be locked
into a single contractor for the design and production of the large
constellation of satellites.
order to focus on completing development of two legacy satellites. MDA
already knows that it would like to pursue different designs and different
technologies for its target system given that the legacy satellites do not
support a producible design. As a result, delaying work on the next
generation of satellites will delay work that could offer a better basis from
which MDA could build an operational capability.
established a launch date before it has completed its assessment of the
working condition of the equipment it needs to assemble in order to finish
building the two satellites it would like to launch. As a result, it does not
know the extent of work that must be done or how much it will cost because
the number components found to be in working or non-working order have
not yet been identified.
MDA has considered pursuing alternate approaches, but all are constrained by
the need to participate in 2006-2007 missile defense tests. These approaches
include (1) launching the legacy satellites in 2008 instead of 2007 and (2)
stopping work on the legacy satellites and focusing instead on developing new
demonstrators. Both of these approaches would enable MDA to inject more
competition into the STSS program, reduce scheduling risks, and demonstrate
more capabilities. However, they also have drawbacks; primarily, they would
delay MDA’s ability to make informed trade-offs on missile defense sensors.
Why GAO Did This Study
The Department of Defense’s
Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is
developing a ballistic missile
defense system designed to counter
a wide spectrum of ballistic missile
threats. A future element of this
system is the Space Tracking and
Surveillance System (STSS). STSS
will eventually be composed of a
constellation of satellites that will
work together to detect and track
missiles throughout all phases of
their flight. GAO was asked to
analyze MDA’s approach to
demonstrate capabilities for STSS.
What GAO Recommends
To optimize MDA’s approach to
demonstrating space-based missile
tracking capabilities, GAO
recommends that MDA focus
spending to assessing what needs
to be done to complete work on
existing satellite components so
that it has a reasonable basis for its
cost and scheduling estimates.
GAO also recommends that MDA
assess alternatives to its current
strategy that may offer
opportunities to reduce risks and
gain more knowledge. In
commenting on a draft of this
report, DOD partially concurred
with two of our recommendations
and concurred with two others. In
its comments, DOD stated that it
would not be prudent to delay
launching satellites given the need
to make overall ballistic missile
defense system sensor
assessments.
