Australia kills $5.3B military space program with Lockheed – Breaking Defense

CANBERRA – TAnthony Albanese’s Labor Government today canceled Australia’s biggest space program, almost 18 months after killing the nation’s flagship space program, drawing strong criticism from to analysts and industry experts.

The satellite communications program, commonly known to the Australian military as JP 9102, was thought to cost at least $7 billion AUD ($5.3 billion USD).

The government launched the project in 2021 and eventually selected the Australian arm of Lockheed Martin to see it through, but the Department of Defense said in a statement today that due to “the acceleration of space science and technology ‘oso developments in space, Defense has assessed that there is one area A GEO-based communications system will not meet the priorities.

“Instead of a single orbit solution, defense must prioritize multi-orbit capabilities that increase stability for the Australian Defense Force,” the department said. “Defence’s current satellite communications capabilities support the organization’s immediate needs. This decision allows Defense to prioritize emerging needs, reduce capability gaps and continue to support our transition to a unified, focused force. “

News of the cancellation was broken by The Australian newspaper, which said the decision was based on budget issues. After The Australian broke the story, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke to Australian Broadcasting Corp radio. and provided the rationale for government defense planning and spending.

“We are busy prioritizing all our purchases when it comes to defense equipment. We have a huge increase in our defense budget and we will make sure that all the decisions we make what is in our national interest,” the Prime Minister said. “Not only do we see the progress that AUKUS preparations are working well and on time and on budget, we see our capacity increase with the increase in the cost of goods. We are also very interested in this fact of being part of our ‘Future made in Australia.’

But the cancellation was made as a broad example of the Albanian government’s unwillingness to increase spending beyond inflation and fiscal reforms and its lack of commitment to regional programs.

The Space Industry Association of Australia (SIAA) noted the government’s decision with “deep regret.” Its chairman, Jeremy Hallett, said in a statement, “While the other OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] Nations see the potential of private space as important for creating high-tech, high-quality jobs and military advantage, in our own backyard we seem to be doing the opposite. ”

Lockheed Martin Australia said it will try to retain the jobs it has established so far: “We intend to retain our independent workforce with influential employees being redeployed to other existing and emerging programs where possible.”

Malcolm Davis, a defense expert at The Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told Breaking Defense in an email that if the government does not provide an alternative to JP 9102, it will mark “a return to reliance on external actors to the country to provide our significant portion of the surface.” Australia has already seen this.

It discovered the limits of access to the WGS security constellation built by Boeing, even after paying to build one of the satellites. During the big bushfires here in 2019 and 2020, the Aussies asked the US military for WGS coverage to help with command and control; It is reported that the US Army Pacific turned things around within 24 hours, but that was lost time and highlighted the limits of Australia’s peacetime reach.

“In the meantime, the government is not sending a signal of confidence in the Australian business space sector and that will see that sector see a lot of risk,” Davis said. “At some point, companies start closing their doors and moving to the US, or wherever. Jobs are lost, profits are reduced and snowballed.”

Davis said the government is trying to cover the high costs of AUKUS and the expansion of the Navy’s fleet, without making “a real increase in defense spending.” He notes that “some important projects” have been redefined, prioritized, delayed or canceled by Labor. “And now, as AUKUS costs continue to increase (as they have been going on) they must continue to cut back to avoid spending more on defense,” he said.

SIAA’s Hallett labeled the space programs either discontinued or unclear. “We have seen a change in direction for Space Awareness under JP 9360 after years of industry leadership. We have a media report on the cancellation of the Resilient Multi-Mission STAR Shot program by the DSTG , we haven’t heard anything publicly about Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing under JP 9380 even though that tender was closed for over a year, and now this news in JP9102 – not to mention program cuts a public domain,” Hallett said in a SIAA statement.

“I’m sure that other companies will take the business case seriously for dealing with security as a customer in the future, which I worry will mean that our fighters will miss out it’s innovation that can make a difference on the battlefield,” he said.

Hallett said Australia needed strategic independence and stability for “economic and national security” and was essential to AUKUS Pillar II, a suite of capabilities such as hypersonics, autonomy, AI and other advanced weapons in the US, Britain and Australia is still pushing for speed. upgrade their forces due to China’s rapid military development.

“Having and deploying key military space assets in the Indo-Pacific region as part of a multi-building infrastructure would have achieved this, and provided a clear addition to the AUKUS Pillar. [II],” Hallett said, “advanced capabilities that cannot function without space capabilities.”

The DoD statement suggested Australia is pursuing a modified space program, with a “multi-role capability,” but gave no further details.