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SBIRS program faces new 12- to 18-month delay

Omaha, Neb. — The Air Force’s embattled Space Based Infrared System program faces another delay — this time of 12 to 18 months, according to defense and industry officials.

The SBIRS initiative, being developed for the air service by Lockheed Martin, has been plagued by numerous cost overruns and schedule delays over the years. Technical problems have forced changes to the date Lockheed was slated to deliver the first SBIRS missile early warning satellite to the service. And now it will take Lockheed another year or 18 months to wrap up testing and deliver that first SBIRS orbiter, U.S. Strategic Command chief Gen. Kevin Chilton said Tuesday during a conference here.

The StratCom chief said the long-troubled satellite program is but one example of how the U.S. military’s space community has encountered turbulence managing major development programs.

Rick Ambrose, vice president and general manager of surveillance and navigation systems for Lockheed’s space systems directorate, confirmed the delay to Defense News.

The new plan is for Lockheed to deliver the first satellite by the end of September 2010, about one year later than the last planned delivery date. While Chilton had pointed to software problems as fueling the delivery slip, Ambrose said it was triggered by a collection of testing-related issues.

“All of the flight software is on track,” Ambrose said.

Program officials, aiming for caution after previous problems, over the last year have inserted more test events into the SBIRS schedule. A few other tests took longer than first anticipated, he said.

Lockheed space officials “refuse to cut corners ... because, given this mission, we have to get this exactly right.”

Ambrose said program officials are intrigued by ongoing tests that expose the SBIRS satellite to extreme temperatures. That test round should wrap up in several weeks, he said.

Program officials also will continue doing “day-in-the-life” tests, during which they simulate how operators will use the platforms.

These rounds of testing, Ambrose said, “are typically a sign of maturity” and no problems have shown up so far.