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To: TobagoJack who wrote (7865)	8/28/2001 5:03:12 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 74559

Yet the satellite-launching frenzy continues. According to the Military Spending Working Group, about $2.5 billion could be saved in 1996- and more than $17 billion between 1996 and 2001-if the National Reconnaissance Office's budget were cut. An additional $4.5 billion could be saved between 1996 and 2000 if the MILSTAR (Military Strategic and Tactical Relay) satellite communications system was finally abandoned. The Working Group reports that the United States spent over $250 billion on satellite intelligence during the Cold War-with impressive results. As a result, U.S. satellite-imaging capability has increased ten-fold while information-collecting requirements have been greatly reduced. The old Soviet Union had a vast surface area-far greater than that of today's potential adversaries. And unfortunately, satellites provide little intelligence on complicated issues like terrorism. It is even more perplexing that some members of Congress want to continue to fund MILSTAR. Originally conceived in the 1970s as a communication system that would operate during a prolonged nuclear war, this troubled project has already cost between $8 and $12 billion over 13 years. It is now estimated that each of six satellites in the system would cost $1 billion to build and launch. The MILSTAR Operation Center at Falcon Air Force Base in Colorado employs 154 people to run day-to-day satellite operations, although only one preliminary satellite, launched in February 1994, is in orbit. That satellite was weighted with ballast instead of its non-functioning communications package. It is already running on a backup power system. The air force, which no longer wants MILSTAR, has tried to cancel the project four times, and the General Accounting Office has recommended its elimination. The Working Group argues that the U.S. military has ample satellite communications capacity, including the navy's Ultra-high Frequency Follow-On, commercial communications satellites, and other less complex, lower cost, and more reliable systems. COMMENTS: Now someone is going to invest in the commercial use of these things? Watch out for the satellite TV to collapse too!