| Rep. Michael Rogers (R-AL), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces made the following opening statement for today's hearing entitled "Assuring Assured Access to Space". "I want to welcome everyone to the Strategic Forces Subcommittee's hearing on Assuring Assured Access to Space. We will be conducting 2 panels today.
In the first panel, we have 2 expert witnesses from industry, who represent our current and projected near-term providers of national security space launch in the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program.
In our second panel, we have 3 senior government officials who have responsibilities over the EELV program, and 1 advisor to the government.
Testifying on Panel 1 is Mr. Tory Bruno, President and Chief Executive Officer of United Launch Alliance. And Ms. Gwynne Shotwell, President and Chief Operating Officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation.
We appreciate you both taking the time to be here today to offer your perspectives including the challenges and opportunities related to our national security space launch activities.
For Panel 2, we have
• The Honorable Katrina McFarland, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition
• Dr. William LaPlante, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition
• General John Hyten, USAF, Commander Air Force Space Command
• Major General Mitch Mitchell, United States Air Force (ret) - General Mitchell was the chairman of an Air Force-chartered study on risk mitigation for the EELV program concerning U.S. reliance on the Russian RD-180 rocket engine.
In this job as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, I've come to more fully appreciate the importance of space to our country. It's one of the underpinnings of our national security.
Let me provide an example. If a foreign adversary was to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile at our country, our military would rapidly detect this missile launch through our Space-Based Infrared System satellites, and the information would be provided to our highest national command authorities to appropriately respond. Such response would almost certainly be transmitted across space-based communications satellites to combatant commanders all over the world who would order our military forces to take action, and those troops would rely on space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities and communications capabilities to perform their mission and return home.
These are extremely important capabilities that American lives may literally depend on. We can't have space capabilities like this without an effective launch program. This is literally rocket science.
So, one of my top priorities in this job is make sure that we have assured access to space, both now and in the future.
We've come a long way since the late 1990s, when we went through a span of 10 months and suffered five launch vehicles failures.
Since 2006, we've benefitted from an unparalleled record of success through the Air Force partnership with United Launch Alliance, with 78 successful launches in the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program.
Most recently, this partnership also brought tremendous savings to the taxpayers, $4.4 billion according to the Air Force, as a result of a 36 rocket core block buy contract.
Now, we are once again, entering into a new phase for EELV. We are transitioning to a more competitive environment. Many steps have been taken by the Government, including Congress and the Department of Defense, to encourage this.
Congress provided funding that was dedicated to new entrants for two launches – SpaceX was awarded both of these contracts.
And, the Air Force has spent over $60 million and allocated more than 100 government employees to help certify SpaceX for the EELV program, which, it may do in the months ahead.
We look forward to competition in the EELV program, because that will achieve the best outcome for the benefit for the taxpayers and our warfighters.
Lastly, it's extremely important that we work to transition off of relying on Russian engines for national security launch purposes. The intention with the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act was to provide a reasonable transition. The Section 1608 language, regarding a prohibition of procuring Russian rocket engines, included specific exceptions and waivers. We intended to allow the use of Russian engines that we understood to be on contract through the period of time that we believed would allow for the development of a new U.S. engine.
My understanding is that the Department of Defense may not be interpreting it the same way. This remains an issue that we look forward to understanding better today.
Regarding the development of a new engine, I understand this will take time. But I believe in our U.S. industry, and I believe that once the men and women in the Department of Defense have the red tape cut away, we can do this expediently, effectively, and efficiently. We should take the lowest risk approach that is in accordance with the terms of Section 1604 of the FY15 NDAA." |
