11/14/2012 No Big, New Military Communication Satellite Programs in the Future

"We are not in an environment where I can afford to start large programs," the commander of the Air Force's Space and Missiles Center said Nov. 14 in a keynote speech during the Satcon conference here.

Budgetary pressures will put an end to large, expensive military satellite programs for the time being, Lt. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski said. The Air Force is currently looking out 10 to 15 years in an attempt to foresee its needs. The service is now in the process of launching a series of two, new powerful milsatcom systems, the Advanced Extremely High-Frequency and the Wideband Global Satcom satellites. They are typical of the large, expensive satellite programs of the past, she said.

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