Senate SBX Saviors?

Senate appropriators aren't quite ready to quit on the Sea-Based X-Band Radar, even though the Pentagon plans to downgrade SBX's operational status beginning in the third quarter of fiscal year 2013.

As the report accompanying the Senate Appropriations Committee's FY-13 defense spending bill -- approved by the panel last week -- states:

The fiscal year 2013 budget request includes no funds to develop and sustain the software necessary to maintain SBX operational capability for ballistic missile defense. The Committee has been informed by the Missile Defense Agency that while SBX will be placed in a limited test support status in fiscal year 2013, SBX remains a critical element of ballistic missile defense and is intended for recall to active operational status as needed, as was demonstrated when North Korea attempted to launch a satellite earlier this year. Therefore, the Committee does not believe it is prudent to neglect software development sustainment and recommends an additional $20,000,000 in Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Defense-Wide only for SBX software development and sustainment.

Here's some background from a Feb. 14 InsideDefense.com story:

Acting Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall called SBX "a large X-band research development radar, primarily." He told reporters during a press briefing yesterday afternoon 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."

Late last year, MDA awarded a $15 million sole-source contract modification to Boeing to continue providing operations and maintenance services for SBX, according to a Pentagon statement.

The contract for SBX "operations and sustainment services" will be performed in Huntsville, AL, and the period of performance is for the first six months of calendar year 2012, according to the Dec. 13 Defense Department statement.