As part of the 2007 defense authorization, Congress included $767 million for the Transformational Satellite program, about $100 million less than the Administration requested. Lawmakers cited “unexecutable growth in the program budget” as the culprit, saying that the Government Accountability Office “questions whether the contractors associated with the space segment of the TSAT program will be able to increase development activities” to the level of the Administration request. However, lawmakers said they remain “fully supportive of the restructured TSAT program.”
The emphasis on speed in the Pentagon’s newly unveiled slate of acquisition reforms may come with increased near-term cost increases, analysts say. But according to U.S. defense officials, the new weapons-buying construct provides the military with enough flexibility to prevent runaway budget overruns in major programs.
