Safeguarding our national security space industrial base in the face of the economic downturn warrants proactive measures to inject funding and sustain critical commercial space companies and capabilities…
Fiscal Policy Proposals:
• Eliminate full funding requirements for all National Security Satellite system procurements
• During COVID-19 period, authorize unlimited Below Threshold Reprogramming (BTR) authorities for universal movement of existing funding
[Supplemental] Funding Proposals:
• +$1.0B to finance all FY 2021 Space Force Unfunded Requirements (details attached)
• +$500M to accelerate existing programs of record (apportioned by Space Force)
• +$500M for commercial collection and communications services from space
• +$300M for large launch service providers, and +$200M for resilient small launch providers
Contracting & Acquisition Policy:
• Accelerate contract awards as much as feasible over next two months, using emergency Undefinitized Contract Actions (UCA) and Industrial Base Justification & Award (J&A) authorities; award all pending UCAs, extend existing UCAs indefinitely
• Ensure maximum flexibility on existing contracts
• Aggressively expand use of innovative contracting methods such as the Department of Defense Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC), Other Transactions Agreements by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and DARPA, and expanded Sec. 804 rapid prototyping authorities
• Extend existing law (Title 10, United States Code Section 2306(c)) that allows for O&M funding for commercial services to extend to commercial services from space
That was some excerpts from an interesting National Security Space Association issue paper, “Mitigating Covid-19 Impacts to the National Security Space Industrial Base.” HT: Matt.
The Space Force FY2021 budget request is about $15 billion. NSSA is asking for an FY2020 supplemental of $3.5+ billion, of which $1 billion toward unfunded requirements (I couldn’t find their attached details).
This one was interesting:
• Provide government guarantee loans to selected U.S. new space companies
o Commercial credit and venture capital have dried up
o OneWeb bankruptcy is the first of many likely near-term problems
o Distressed companies are targets for adversaries like China, who can buy the IP for pennies on the dollar without CFIUS (foreign investment policy) reviews
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