USAF to Shut Down Satellite-Tracking Space Fence

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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You can blame the federal budget sequester for the US Air Force shutting down the Space Surveillance System on October 1st. The system was due for an upgrade from the ‘60’s technology it employs, but budget restraints have put the project on hold while the shutdown proceeds. Government thinking at its best. :eek:

The end of the Space Fence program has been a long time coming, but a replacement was supposed to be in the works. However, the federal budget sequester earlier this year has triggered a wide-ranging Pentagon audit that caused the project to be put on hold.
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I think this blurb is worthy of mentioning too:

http://www.spacenews.com/article/military-space/36655shelton-orders-shutdown-of-space-fence

Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Sensors of Moorestown, N.J., and Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems of Tewksbury, Mass., have developed competing designs for the new network of ground-based radars, which would be capable of tracking greater numbers of smaller objects than the current Space Fence.

Shelton said in July that engineers at Eglin Air Force base in Florida were looking for ways to improve the current Space Fence as a contingency plan should the Pentagon elect not to go forward with the next-generation system.
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The Space Fence hardware dates back to the 1960s...and apparently someone wondered why we were pumping billions of USD into a program that doesn't work as well as it could and apparently needs a refresh. Ofc, I'd rather see Congresspeople have they and their staffer's paychecks sequestered first...
 
So 50 years, and it all of a sudden has to stop from one budget cut? Like its 99% done and it just needed that extra billion...
 
This is typical government bureaucracy in action. People aren't paying enough taxes in their mind, so instead of cutting bureaucratic bloat they cut critical programs, then wash their hands of it, saying "If people had only agreed to a little increase in taxes..." It happens at the local levels too. Schools love to put levies on ballots that have millions in administrative pay raises and very little in actual operational improvements. Then when the local populace votes it down, they cut bus service to punish the parents and extort money the next time it's on the ballot. They did it with fire and police in Ohio when they wanted to overturn SB5. The unions flooded the state with propaganda, claiming it would cut fire and police and other critical services, when all the bill did was de-unionize state bureaucratic positions and make state employees contribute to 10% or 20% of their benefits instead of having 100% of it paid by the taxpayers. This is the kind of crap that people who are in favor of small government get sick of, and is why people want smaller government. All this waste and crap they pull and keep getting away with because of gullible idiots that can't see it and keep voting the same dirtbag politicians into office.
 
MajorDomo said:
You can blame the federal budget sequester
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for anything.

So far we've spent more this year than last year in spite of the sequester. The ordeal of the sequester has be purely PR orchestration to punish the notion of general spending cuts. Which we can either do now, or have it all go away later.
 
What's the US debt at these days? 16 trillion? No buggy, we'll just get a consolidation loan, maybe add an extra 50 bucks to each payment, we'll have that sucker paid down in no time!
 
I bet the radio amateurs could croudsource something that worked pretty well at this point. There are hundreds of EME capable arrays in private hands at this point, many thousand meteor scatter stations.
 
Funny that for the last 20 years this has been operating with basically no real threat (post-USSR), but now that North Korea has actually stated that they are trying to develop missiles with the range to hit the USA, we are going to shut down the tracking system :rolleyes:

Well the federal money that is going to end up paying for all the city worker's pensions in Detroit has to come from somewhere...
 
Skripka said:
I think this blurb is worthy of mentioning too:

http://www.spacenews.com/article/military-space/36655shelton-orders-shutdown-of-space-fence



The Space Fence hardware dates back to the 1960s...and apparently someone wondered why we were pumping billions of USD into a program that doesn't work as well as it could and apparently needs a refresh. Ofc, I'd rather see Congresspeople have they and their staffer's paychecks sequestered first...
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Most of these asshats don't even need their paychecks, so I say we just use them to fund a portion of the new system. ;)
 
Seriously a $700 Billion dollar budget for the military and I'm suppose to be worried about the old defense sat grid?

It'll be replaced , in secret. This is just a nice way of publicly acting as if we are weakened when in fact we are far from it.
 
Godmachine said:
Seriously a $700 Billion dollar budget for the military and I'm suppose to be worried about the old defense sat grid?

It'll be replaced , in secret. This is just a nice way of publicly acting as if we are weakened when in fact we are far from it.
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I would like to hope so;However,I believe the current president's goal is to weaken the US in any way he can.
 
Darnit...now what are all the HARP folks going to have left to talk about?
 
It's a good thing they're cutting something cool like this and not the completely necessary sexual harassment SHARP training or sensitivity courses.
 
Phoenix333 said:
This is typical government bureaucracy in action. People aren't paying enough taxes in their mind, so instead of cutting bureaucratic bloat they cut critical programs, then wash their hands of it, saying "If people had only agreed to a little increase in taxes..." It happens at the local levels too. Schools love to put levies on ballots that have millions in administrative pay raises and very little in actual operational improvements. Then when the local populace votes it down, they cut bus service to punish the parents and extort money the next time it's on the ballot. They did it with fire and police in Ohio when they wanted to overturn SB5. The unions flooded the state with propaganda, claiming it would cut fire and police and other critical services, when all the bill did was de-unionize state bureaucratic positions and make state employees contribute to 10% or 20% of their benefits instead of having 100% of it paid by the taxpayers. This is the kind of crap that people who are in favor of small government get sick of, and is why people want smaller government. All this waste and crap they pull and keep getting away with because of gullible idiots that can't see it and keep voting the same dirtbag politicians into office.
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This, plus the fact that it's all based on baseline budgeting, which is a bullshit way to budget to begin with. Well, unless of course your government and the sequester is basically a cessation of spending from a budget that was already baselined higher than the prior fiscal years. I think only the government budgets this way and basically the administration and their cohorts are all crying about cuts to the budget that were increased to begin with by 2% - 3% I believe. It's madness.
 
nightanole said:
So 50 years, and it all of a sudden has to stop from one budget cut? Like its 99% done and it just needed that extra billion...
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They've been turning off parts making it less effective since the 90s. It's just that sequestration finally killed it all together, and other budget cuts likely killed the replacement.
 
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