SBX Redux?

Looks like the Airborne Laser isn't the only diminished program House authorizers want the Missile Defense Agency to revive.

In their mark of the fiscal year 2013 defense authorization bill approved this afternoon, House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee members are striving to upgrade the Sea-based X-band radar's deployment capability. The subcommittee's portion of the bill includes the following brief language:

This section would require the Director, Missile Defense Agency to ensure that the sea-based X-band radar is maintained in a status such that the radar may be deployed in less than 14 days and for at least 60 days each year.

In February, Inside Missile Defense reported that the Pentagon had announced plans to downgrade SBX's operational status beginning in the third quarter of fiscal year 2013.  Further:

According to the Missile Defense Agency's FY-13 research, development, test and evaluation budget justification document, SBX "will be placed in a limited test support status, recallable to active operational status when indications and warnings indicate [a] need for enhanced discrimination."

Acting Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall called SBX "a large X-band research development radar, primarily." He told reporters during a Feb. 13 press briefing that the radar system is "very expensive to keep and operate," and officials thought other systems could get similar results for less money. "It's largely an affordability issue where we have other sensors that can fill in the gap," he added.

Accordingly, MDA has recommended subtracting nearly $163 million from the program for FY-13, budgeting instead $9.7 million, according to the agency's justification document. That reduction "reflects a realignment of Department of Defense priorities," the document reads. Additionally, the agency has renamed the SBX project number from "MD46" to "MX46."

According to the White House Office of Management and Budget, "by maintaining the SBX radar as a test asset rather than terminating it, the administration saves at least $500 million over five years while also retaining the ability to recall it to an active, operational status if and when it is needed."