Contracting speeds up ASAT effort
U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command December 1996

The U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command’s Contracting and Acquisition Management Office showed once more why it is the best contracting office in the Army. In a matter of days, it arranged for contractual efforts to be initiated and completed to keep the Anti-Satellite (ASAT) program alive and avoid approximately $10 million in additional costs.

When immediate funds needed to be obligated to restart the ASAT effort, the command’s contracting office prepared a modification to the existing contract with Rockwell International ,which was signed and distributed within three days. A change order is expected to be issued prior to Dec. 31, worth $12.2 million.

In a related case, it took the contracting office only five days to issue a $2 million letter contract to DESE Research, Inc., required to ensure that the next hover test of the ASAT kill vehicle can be conducted at the end of Feb. 97, as scheduled. Any delays would have jeopardized the flight test schedule and increased the cost by millions of dollars.

The kinetic energy ASAT program is intended to provide the United States with the capability to interdict hostile satellites. This capability is crucial to assuring that hostile satellites are not used against the United States or our allied forces to provide an enemy important information derived from space-based surveillance and targeting.