2004
Federal Agenda Chamber of Commerce, Huntsville/Madison County Alabama
Chamber Agenda We are grateful to our Congressional delegation for their hard work over the years to grow and protect our community. Through the federal investments that our delegation has brought to the region, Huntsville/Madison County has become a high technology partner capable of supporting the most demanding needs of our military and space programs. Our nation is a superpower, due in part to the accomplishments and breakthroughs achieved in Huntsville through national space and military programs. Many of the federal programs that will keep our nation in a position of world leadership are today based in Huntsville. In addition to the important role these programs will play in maintaining our global leadership, they also play an important role in our local economy. As we approach the next round of Base Realignment and Closure in 2005, we encourage our delegation to remain vigilant in their defense of Redstone. The military value of Redstone and the synergy of the more than 60 resident federal activities make it a logical choice for future consolidation of activities. In addition to many other sensible Redstone consolidations, we continue to believe that Redstone should become the headquarters of the Army’s Research, Development and Engineering Command (see page 1 of Appendix). In this agenda, the Chamber outlines some of the most pressing issues facing our nation today. We rely upon our Congressional delegation to help us realize this next chapter in our nation’s and our community’s growth.
The President’s Vision for U.S. Space Exploration The Chamber applauds President Bush for putting forth a bold new space policy that focuses on exploration. This renewed focus on human and robotic missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond provides a vision for NASA beyond the International Space Station and will serve to focus and rejuvenate the American aerospace industry. Marshall Space Flight Center and our community stand ready to support the President’s vision. Two of the Marshall Center’s primary capabilities lie in the areas of systems development and integration. The Chamber urges the Alabama congressional delegation to work with the NASA Administrator and the Administration to ensure that Marshall is charged with the systems development and integration role for Project Constellation. This effort will entail multiple development efforts including the crew exploration vehicle, transfer stages, lunar landing and ascent capabilities, launch vehicles, and a technology program. A spiral development process will be used to manage Project Constellation. This development process, which will come in stages, demands a systems approach. Through lessons learned from the Orbital Space Plane and Next Generation Launch Technology, the Marshall Center is well positioned to lead this effort on behalf of the Agency. The Chamber firmly believes that defining this role for the Marshall Center should be the Alabama Congressional delegation’s number one priority with regard to NASA issues. The President’s policy also stresses the importance of returning the Space Shuttle to flight and completing the International Space Station. The Chamber supports both of these activities and urges that revisions to the Shuttle’s service life extension program reflect needed investments in the system’s propulsion elements. An aspect of the President’s new space policy that deserves additional scrutiny revolves around the continued and potentially expanded use of foreign launch systems. The Chamber believes that launch capability is an asset with national security implications. Therefore, the Chamber urges that U.S. investments in space transportation and propulsion should be made in order to mitigate the need for future reliance on foreign launch providers.
Build Up the Space and Missile Defense Technology Base Today, the Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) technology development budget has no applied research funds (6.2) and its Advanced Technology Research funding accounts for a miniscule portion of the overall Missile Defense Agency (MDA) budget with the vast majority of funds being dedicated to acquiring and fielding near term systems.
As the current director of MDA stated in testimony before Congress: “At current funding levels, we are able to fund far fewer programs for next generation weapon systems. Since most of our financial resources are focused on development, production, and deployment of our family of systems, we need to invest in technology development if we are to keep pace with the emerging threat…” The lack of funding for applied research by MDA and the US Army leaves a gap in critical technology development for the US Army Air, Space, and Missile Defense PEO. The lack of funding is manifesting itself in three important ways. Firstly, technologies needed to address advanced threats, increase performance against current threats, and enhance reliability are not being vigorously pursued. Secondly, the best and brightest minds coming into the workplace are going elsewhere at a time when applied research for BMD is non-existent. Finally, universities and small businesses have seen a drop in applied research funding since the early 1990’s and have downsized or eliminated their applied research programs accordingly. The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (USASMDC) located in Huntsville, and its predecessor organizations have been in the forefront of BMD technology development since the first feasibility studies of a defense against strategic ballistic missiles in 1955. USAMDC, established as the nation’s premier BMD research facility, invented and validated the critical technologies now being used to build the first non-nuclear BMD system scheduled for initial deployment in 2004. The command is the only cost-effective choice to reestablish a world-class BMD research facility to manage, direct, and coordinate with MDA and the services for both in-house research and research conducted in colleges and universities. We urge the delegation to support Army funding consistent with establishing a credible program to address applied research in areas such as multi-spectral image change detection; guidance, navigation, and control for hypersonic vehicles; early launch detection sensors; next generation micro-electronics; and next generation materials which are unique to missile defense. These funds are critical for the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Technical Center to rapidly start-up comprehensive applied research programs that are critical to keep pace with the advancing threat and maintain the nation’s technological superiority.
Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Missile Defense Program The United States will field an initial missile defense capability in 2004 to provide a limited defense against missile attack. This early capability will be steadily improved and expanded in deliberate and