Keeping Webb Telescope continues skyrocketing budgets for the project – destroys fiscal discipline
Campbell, 10 [Hank, “James Webb Space Telescope delivers more bad news”, November 2010, Science 2.0, http://www.science20.com/cool-links/james_webb_space_telescope_delivers_more_bad_news]
A few months ago when I wrote that article, it was 3 years behind and $1.5 billion over budget with no end in sight. The last projection of 2014 and $5 billion in cost was so maddening it launched an outside investigation. Now it turns out to be even worse: $6.5 billion and September 2015 completion.
A report ordered by Senator Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat (see Democratic War on Science) said the whole thing was flawed from the beginning, essentially implying the cost and technical issues were understated to get financing started.
[INSERT LOSING FISCAL DISCIPLINE CAUSES ECONOMIC COLLAPSE and ECONOMIC COLLAPSE CAUSES WAR]
Spending Turn Ext.- Overruns Inevit.
Webb cost overruns inevitable if Congress doesn’t cut
Vieru, 11 [Tudor, Article, “The James Webb Space Telescope May Be Canceled”, July 2011, http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-May-Be-Canceled-210146.shtml]
The JWST would cost $1.5 billion over the initial budget projections, and would be completed in September 2015, rather than September 2014. There are numerous reasons for the delay, an independent panel learned during an investigation conducted in November 2010. Cost overruns are inevitable when a space agency is building the largest, most complex telescope in the world, that dwarfs the Hubble, and provides a way of peering back into a time when the entire Universe was only a fraction of its current age.
Spending Turn Ext. – A2: Deliver On Time and In Budget
Webb costs rising, but NASA won’t announce exact overages until after budget is passed
Billings, 10 [Lee, Article, October 2010, “Space Science: The Telescope that Ate Astronomy”, “NASA’s next-generation space observatory promises to open new window on the Universe- but its cost could close many more.”, Nature 467, http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101027/full/4671028a.html]
Small wonder, then, that NASA ended up spending almost $2 billion just on the JWST’s initial technology development. Nonetheless, the agency did not substantially cut any of the telescope’s capabilities to bring the costs back under control. Instead, it looked for partnerships, securing major contributions from the European and Canadian space agencies. NASA also maximized support for the project on Capitol Hill by awarding contracts for spacecraft components to a small army of companies and universities scattered through many congressional districts. Aerospace giant Northrop Grumman of Los Angeles, California, became the JWST’s prime contractor, under NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, which would manage the overall project.
By the time the JWST passed its preliminary design reviews in spring 2008 and NASA had officially committed to building it, the project had been transformed from its comparatively modest ‘faster, better, cheaper’ origins into an audacious multibillion-dollar, multi-instrument mission spanning institutions, countries and continents.Even so, ambivalence still surrounds the JWST. Failure is not an option, either for NASA or for the astronomers it supports. Yet, in the face of flat or declining budgets, a dwindling docket of near-term astrophysics missions and rising public outrage over perceptions of runaway government spending, tough questions are inevitable. At a mid-September meeting of the agency’s astrophysics subcommittee, efforts to nail down just how many extra dollars lie between the JWST and its eventual arrival at L2 were met with silence. Until the announcement of a new budget and schedule, informed by recent panel reviews, that is the best answer anyone is likely to get.
***NOAA Tradeoff Aff
Long Timeframe
The timeframe isn’t until 2016 - our impacts happen now
DWSS solves the DA Brinton 9-5-11 –( Tim staff writer at spacenews.com “Northrop and U.S. Air force close to finalizing DWSS contract” http://www.spacenews.com/military/110509-northrop-af-close-dwss-contract.html) jc
WASHINGTON — Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems expects to finalize its contract with the U.S. Air Force soon to develop a pair of polar-orbiting satellites that will provide weather information for military users, government and industry officials said. The omnibus 2011 spending bill signed into law in April provided $175 million for the service’s Defense Weather Satellite System (DWSS), which will allow the program to complete a system requirements review for the scaled-back constellation by the end of the year, Linnie Haynesworth, Northrop’s DWSS vice president and program manager, said May 3. The DWSS program was created after the White House dismantled the joint military-civilian National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) in February 2010. The Air Force was directed to develop its own military weather satellites, while NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration pursue satellites for civil weather prediction and climate research observations. Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman was the NPOESS prime contractor, responsible for developing the satellite platforms, managing subcontractor development of instruments and the ground system, and integrating the entire system. Contracts for several of the instruments and the ground system were transferred to NASA to manage. Northrop Grumman remains under contract with the Air Force to build the satellite platforms and oversee the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite instruments being developed by Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems of El Segundo, Calif., for DWSS and its NASA-managed civilian counterpart, the Joint Polar Satellite System. Northrop Grumman and the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center are “days or weeks” from finalizing a contract action that will allow the company to work to meet DWSS requirements, which are somewhat different from NPOESS requirements, Haynesworth said in an interview. “The authorization that we would expect here soon would be one that would allow us to pursue DWSS-specific requirements, separate and apart from what is in the NPOESS program of record,” Haynesworth said.
Won’t be deployed until 2018
House of representatives committee on science and technology 6-29-10 (House of representatives, enough said “Setting new courses for polar weather satellites and Earth observations” http://gop.science.house.gov/Media/hearings/oversight10/june29/charter.pdf) jc
Some of the unknown items have been addressed by decisions made last week by DOD and NOAA. Mr. Klinger should testify about the Acquisition Decision Memorandum (ADM) subsequently issued on June 22. In it, DOD indicates it expects the newly-christened Defense Weather Satellite System (DWSS) to launch its first satellite in 2018. DOD intends to also use the VIIRS sensor as its imager, and the satellite will carry the Space Environment Monitor originally intended for NPOESS. However, more information was requested on the anticipated microwave sounding instrument and its selection was postponed until August 2010.
Commercial Sector Solves
Commercial sector solves the DA
Smith 4-7-11-( Maricia, staff writer at spacepolicyonline.com “ Congress Not Convinced JPSS Need is urgent”)jc
The possibility of commercial providers stepping into the weather satellite business was broached as an option. Some instruments could fly as hosted payloads on unrelated satellites, for example, or weather satellites could follow the lead of the commercial remote sensing industry with guaranteed government data buys as the cornerstone of their business.
Weather balloons solve climate monitoring
Reuters 1-25-9 ( “Antartic weather balloons give climate clues” http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/2009/01/25/antarctic-weather-balloons-give-climate-clues/) jc
Meteorologist Tamsin Gray releases a weather balloon at the British Rothera research station on the Antarctic Peninsula to help record temperature and other data from the freezing air. Apart from helping predict the weather, the balloons are also giving scientists clues to global warming. As you can see, it starts off about 2 metres across but how big it is when it reaches about 25 km above the ground? a) it shrinks to the size of a tennis ball b) it swells to the size of a double-decker bus c) it drifts off into space unchanged Gray, of the British Antarctic Survey, says that data from the atmosphere about 5 km above Antarctica are helping to confirm findings by the U.N. Climate Panel that greenhouse gases are warming the planet. She says that layer is warming three times faster than the global average during winter, or about 0.75 Celsius over 30 years, which is what computer models predict if man-made emissions are to blame for raising temperatures. “It’s confirming the theory that warming is caused by greenhouse gases,” she said. The balloons are let off around Antarctica and are giving clues both to weather and to the long-term climate. …and the answer to the question is “b” — after it swells to the size of a double decker bus because of a lack of pressure high up in the atmosphere it pops and falls to earth, along with the small measuring device that is then lost on the ice.
***DoD Tradeoff Aff
N/U – Cuts Inevitable
F-35 cuts inevitable
New York Times 10 ( 2/15, http://fightercountry.org/partnership/f-35-joint-strike-fighter-program-revitalized-by-robert-gates/71431)MO
A cost-effective F-35 is critical to the future combat needs of the Air Force, Navy and Marines. The project already is years behind schedule and nearly 50 percent above its originally estimated cost. That is clearly too much, especially with the Pentagon planning to buy almost 2,500 of the planes over the next 25 years. That comes to a total cost of $300 billion — provided nothing else goes wrong. Mr. Gates means to see that it does not. This month, he removed the Marine in charge of the program, Maj. Gen. David Heinz, and said his replacement would be a higher-ranking officer with more authority to keep a tighter rein on private contractors’ performance. Reinforcing that message, Mr. Gates also announced that he would withhold, at least for now, $614 million in progress payments from the prime contractor, Lockheed Martin. The money should not be released until Lockheed has significantly improved its performance. This insistence on accountability would be considered normal in most private businesses. But it is virtually unheard of in the cozy world of military procurement. Mr. Gates clearly wants to get the attention of other Pentagon managers and contractors. We hope he has. The F-35 program was supposed to be the prototype for more effective defense procurement. Like the far more expensive F-22, the plane incorporates stealth technology and can successfully engage enemy fighters in air-to-air combat. But it also is built to support ground combat units in today’s wars, like the Air Force F-16 and A-10 and the Navy F-18 it is intended to replace. Mr. Gates will have to keep monitoring the performance of Lockheed Martin and General Heinz’s successor and personally intervene again if needed. The F-35 program is too necessary and budget dollars too scarce to permit further waste or delay.
No IL – F-35 Won’T Be Cut
Several reasons:
(1) Self-Funding solves the coming F-35 budget cuts – House and Senate prove
The Hill 6/22 – (John T. Bennett, “Top Defense chief fires back at ‘self-fund’ effort on alternative F-35 engine,” June 22, 2011, http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/167999-top-defense-chief-fires-back-at-self-fund-effort-on-f-35-engine) mihe
The Pentagon earlier this year issued a stop-work order for the second F-35 engine after Congress rejected funding for it in a compromise 2011 defense appropriations bill. The military had been trying to end the program for years, saying it is not needed and is too pricey. The Pentagon’s purchasing boss also took umbrage with a separate portion of the House-approved bill that would allow alternate engine contractors Rolls-Royce and GE access to Pentagon-owned equipment so they could continue testing a second F-35 power plant. The provision states this would be done “at no cost” to the federal government while the companies self-fund the program. A spokesman for General Electric defended the self-funding plan. “Self-funding is aimed at protecting a $3 billion taxpayer investment in a JSF engine that is 80 percent complete. GE-Rolls seeks to run three engines next year at GE’s altitude test facility – the only privately owned facility of its kind,” GE spokesman Rick Kennedy said in an email. “The House voted 55-5 in committee to support the self-funding concept because they understand the value of this proposal to the country. Significant Senate leadership also backs the program. We look forward to a successful resolution of this item in the House/Senate conference later this year,” Kennedy said.
(2) F-35 not on the chopping block – Defense spending bill proves
Reuters 7/8 – (David Alexander, “U.S. House approves $649 bln for defense in 2012,” July 8, 2011, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/08/usa-budget-defense-idUSN1E7670UA20110708) mihe
A $649 billion defense spending bill for next year easily passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday after four days of debate in which war-weary lawmakers sought to curb President Barack Obama's combat operations in Afghanistan and Libya. The measure, approved 336-87 in the Republican-dominated House, would raise the Pentagon's base budget for the 2012 fiscal year beginning on Oct. 1 by about $17 billion over current levels, despite intense pressure to slash the $1.4 trillion U.S. deficit. The House cut about $8 billion from Obama's overall defense spending request, voting to provide about $530 billion for the Pentagon's primary budget and another $119 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Obama asked for about $690 billion for military spending for 2012. This House bill does not include funds for U.S. nuclear weapons programs or military construction, which come in other bills and add about $33 billion to defense spending. The House measure includes $5.9 billion to buy 32 Lockheed Martin's (LMT.N) radar-evading F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, $15.1 billion to build 10 Navy ships and $3.3 billion for 28 Boeing F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets (BA.N) and 12 EA-18 Growler electronic warfare aircraft.
(3) New spending does not = f-35 cuts
Ewing 11- (Philip Ewing-Author at Defense and Acquisition journal. “Panetta’s challenge: Not just cut, but cut quickly” http://www.dodbuzz.com/2011/07/06/panettas-challenge-not-just-cut-but-cut-quickly/) MO
All this is why Kaplan believes the Army will be the biggest target in Austerity America, because cutting soldiers, and their payrolls and other benefits, frees up that money on the balance sheet much faster. And if you want to pick on the Army, you also could argue that one of its biggest and potentially most expensive priorities, the Ground Combat Vehicle, may not survive in its present form. Lawmakers have scratched their heads as to why the Army even needs a big new armored personnel carrier. Although the brass has a clear case — its current generation of vehicles is maxed out, in terms of size and power, and the Army needs something that can carry an entire squad — all the budget blades flying in Washington may find a quick and easy target in the GCV, given how early it is in development. It’s just like anything else: The more momentum the program gets, the harder it will be to stop. Everyone in the Building and on the Hill understands this, and they’ll no doubt push or pull accordingly.
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