U.S. Military Space: Status of Selected Programs (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Revised June 4, 2007 |
| Report Number |
RL33601 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Patricia Moloney Figliola, Resources, Science, and Industry Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
| Older Revisions |
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Summary:
The 1958 National Aeronautics and Space Act specified that military space activities be conducted by the Department of Defense (DOD). DOD and the intelligence community manage a broad array of space activities, including launch vehicle development, communications satellites, navigation satellites (the Global Positioning SystemâGPS), early warning satellites to alert the United States to foreign missile launches, weather satellites, reconnaissance satellites, and developing capabilities to protect U.S. satellite systems and to deny the use of space to adversaries (called "space control" or "counterspace systems"). The 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War is dubbed by some as the first "space war" because support from space displayed great improvement over what was available during the previous major conflict, Vietnam. These systems continue to play significant roles in U.S. military operations. How to organize DOD and the intelligence community to work effectively on space programs has been an issue for many years.
Tracking the DOD space budget is extremely difficult since space is not identified as a separate line item in the DOD budget. Additionally, DOD sometimes releases only partial information (omitting funding for classified programs) or will suddenly release without explanation new figures for prior years that are quite different from what was previously reported.
A breakdown by program acquisition costs for individual weapon systems in the DOD budget request for FY2008 is available online at http://www.dod.mil/¿comptroller/¿defbudget/¿fy2008/¿fy2008_weabook.pdf. The FY2007 authorization and appropriations bills contain the authority and funding for DOD space activities, but, as mentioned, do not specify figures for those activities. The House and Senate passed conference agreements on both the FY2007 national defense authorization bill, H.R. 5122, and the FY2007 defense appropriations bill, H.R. 5631. The President signed the appropriations bill into law, P.L. 109-289, (H.Rept. 109-504; S.Rept. 109-292; H.Rept. 109-676: in Congressional Record H6996-7309) on September 29, 2006, and he signed the authorization bill into law, P.L. 109-364, (H.Rept. 109-452; H.Rept. 109-702: in Congressional Record H8061-8540) on October 17, 2006. Specific figures for the programs included in this report are contained in those sections.
