TRYING TO CONNECT

The U.S. Air Force has a lot riding on the Transformational Satellite (TSAT) project during the coming months. Besides trying to ensure that future combatants have enough secure bandwidth to carry out their missions, the service is attempting to restore its reputation as a space program manager.

A series of high-profile cost overruns and schedule delays has badly tarnished the Air Force's "street credentials" in Congress, leading to repeated and deep budget cuts. The "new" TSAT program--the development plan has been modified several times because of funding cuts--is as much about transforming the views of critics on the outside as it is about fielding a high-throughput satellite communication system starting in 2014.

The stakes are high for the Air Force and industry: billions of dollars in contracts hang in the balance. For instance, the Air Force is proposing to truncate the Advanced Extremely High-Frequency (AEHF) satellite constellation to three spacecraft instead of five, betting on TSAT. But if Air Force leaders fail to win the trust of Congress, it may force money to be spent on the near-term AEHF system, further delaying the more ambitious vision for an Internet-in-space-like TSAT.

Congress is receiving a lot of advice on how to "help" the Air Force manage space programs. Some contractors have briefed lawmakers on incremental approaches such as a "TSAT-lite" that would place some future capabilities on platforms already in development.

After trying to win over lawmakers with little more to put forward than "trust us," the Air Force is hoping hard data from recent technology demonstrations will bring some credibility to its chosen path for satcom. The service has abandoned its original procurement strategy to appease critics and is now pushing for a block approach that would see spacecraft complexity gradually increase.

TSAT will rely on laser terminals to satisfy the military's mushrooming appetite for large-bandwidth communications by using light waves to transfer more data faster than existing RF systems. Those laser terminals will be the spaceborne backbone of a larger network, called the Global Information Grid (GIG), that will feed information to airborne intelligence assets and troops on the ground. The five-satellite constellation would be deployed in geostationary orbits to ensure global coverage. TSAT developers boast that by using data management systems modeled after common Internet protocols and optical crosslinks, they will achieve dramatically higher capacity than today's systems.

The new plan, devised in part as a response to cuts and criticisms, pushes out the first launch by 18 months to 2014. And, the Pentagon has dropped the desired RF crosslink using the first satellite. With only a laser crosslink, the initial TSAT spacecraft will not be able to push data directly from AEHF and Milstar satellites, which will already be in orbit. To achieve an uninterrupted crosslinking ring around the globe, a full TSAT constellation must be fielded, according to one industry official. Placing both crosslinks on the first satellite demanded too much weight, according to that official.

Senior Air Force representatives indicate still more changes in the acquisition strategy may be ahead as the service tries to manage technology risks and maintain broad industrial expertise.

Even before settling on the incremental development plan, funding cuts led the Air Force to a more measured approach that focused initially on extensive risk-reduction activities. Those technology validation efforts are now starting to wrap up, with TSAT headed for a systems design review next year.