Air Force Targets $1B in Space Acquisition Savings

摘要

The U.S. Air Force expects to shave nearly $1 billion from its space acquisition portfolio over the next five years, primarily through efficiencies that include reduced oversight of key programs, a senior service official said. Lt. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, commander of Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles, the service's space acquisition shop, attributed more than $600 million of those anticipated savings to the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) secure satellite communications program. The Air Force is buying five AEHF satellites from prime contractor Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Sunnyvale, Calif., under a multibillion-dollar contract. In a teleconference with reporters May 9, Pawlikowski said the Air Force worked with the contractor to streamline production flow and test schedule, while reducing by nearly half the number of reports required from the contractor-from 78 to 42. The Air Force also has reduced the number of meetings on the program as well as the number of people required to attend, she said.