Air Force Reorganization May Drastically Affect GPS Program

August 30, 2010 By: Alan Cameron

The U.S. Department of Defense has totally revamped the USAF portion of National Security Space. A communiqué on this subject has appeared, signed by the Under Secretary for the Air Force, although the changes it puts in place are of an order of importance that certainly indicates decisions taken at a higher level, most likely by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

Someone in the Administration has decided Air Force Space no longer needs to be "unique," especially as acquisition and requirements are concerned. Air Force Space acquisitions will now be treated just as any other major acquisition program, and will run through the normal channels of SAF/AQ, except for the fact that there will be a new entity in the mix, the "Air Force Space Board."

The changes are far reaching. The SECAF (Secretary of the Air Force) began implementation
today, August 30, and it means renewed importance for the role of the Under Secretary of the Air Force. Almost everything will change and yet many of the primary players remain the same; they will now coordinate with new organizations and through different reporting chains.

These changes could have momentous effects on the GPS program as a major ACAT 1 activity.

Although emphatically not included in this reorganization memo, one buzz-slogan making the rounds of Washington D.C. Hallways and offices reportedly goes, “Let’s launch fewer GPS satellites and depend more on GLONASS.”

Not known is whether the floaters of this policy are aware that GLONASS accuracy is generally three times worse than GPS and that the lifetime of that system’s satellites has only recently reached six years, and has been as short as six months.

Next week’s Defense PNT e-mail newsletter column by editor Don Jewell will address exactly what these changes mean, especially to the GPS program as they occur.

Read a PDFof the USAF Memorandum about the changes here.