Trouble at US space force as multibillion-dollar program cancelled
Source: The Guardian
Trouble at US space force as multibillion-dollar program cancelled
Development of classified military communications satellite terminated over cost, scheduling and difficulty with payload
Edward Helmore
Thu 15 Feb 2024 10.30 EST
Last modified on Thu 15 Feb 2024 11.38 EST
The US space force, a standalone branch of the US military charged with securing US “interests in, from, and to space”, has cancelled a multibillion-dollar program to develop a classified military communications satellite.
The termination of the Northrop Grumman program was made because of increased costs, difficulties developing its payload and a schedule delay, Bloomberg reported, citing a regulatory filing and people familiar with the decision.
Last month, Northrop’s CFO, David Keffer, appeared to refer to the project’s cancellation in an earnings call when he mentioned a decrease in space unit sales partly “reflects declines in a restricted program due to shifts in government priority”.
Reports of the cancellation of the classified program come a day after the head of the House intelligence committee, Mike Turner, called on the Biden administration to declassify information on what he called a “serious national security threat”, which was later reported to involve Russian plans to deploy nuclear weapons in space.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/15/us-space-force-military-communications-satellite-program-cancelled
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