The Pentagon’s much-anticipated 2010 Space Posture Review appears headed for a delay, sources said, and several indicated it could be up to a year late.
The space study was described by Pentagon officials as supporting the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) process. The Defense Department had planned to unveil it in early February along with the QDR and several other analyses, including the Nuclear Posture Review and Ballistic Missile Defense Review.
According to a provision in the 2009 Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act, the Space Posture Review was to feature, among other things, “the definition, policy, requirements, and objectives” for a number of issues, including space situational awareness; space control; space superiority, including defensive and offensive counterspace and protection; force enhancement and application; space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; integration of space and ground control systems; and other matters deemed by the Defense Department as “relevant to understanding the space posture of the United States.”
Several sources with knowledge of the congressionally mandated space study last week said senior Pentagon brass have decided to push off by months delivery of that report to Congress. The nuclear review also will be delayed by several months, according to media reports.
Senior officials have said the space review would inform the Obama administration’s first QDR.
“We will also be ensuring that the QDR is cross-fertilized, if you will, with the Nuclear Posture Review, the Space Posture Review, the Missile Defense Review, which are all going on at the same time,” Michele Flournoy, undersecretary of defense for policy, said in an April 29 speech in Washington.
Despite two of the three contributing analyses facing delays, the QDR is slated to be completed on time. The Pentagon plans to deliver it to Congress and publicly unveil it, along with the 2011 budget request and missile review, on Feb. 1.
