The unexpected and huge expense of dealing with Hurricane Katrina could force the Pentagon to divert funds from new space programs, Boeing official George Muellner told reporters at AFA’s Air & Space Conference. Faced with a tight budget picture before Katrina, the added pressure could tip the scale. According to Muellner, likely candidates for cuts would be transformational space systems—many of which have had trouble staying within their existing budgets.
Defense industry leaders say the Air Force needs to be able to update the software on its munitions multiple times a day, not every few months, and a new Pentagon instruction released last week could enable that.
