The SDA was set up in March 2019, under the office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin, who had argued that a separate agency was necessary to help bring lower-cost commercial space technology into the military systems.
FREMONT, CA: The recently set up Space Development Agency (SDA) under The Pentagon proposed a USD 11 billion budget for five years. The SDA intends to use this funding to plan, design, and deploy large constellations of satellites for military use between 2021 to 2025.
The majority of the funding will be used towards building 250 satellites or larger communications networks that would support a missile defense constellation and other capabilities provided by satellites in low orbits. The proposed budget also explains how SDA intends to coordinate space projects across the U.S. military, preempting criticism that the agency plans to seize space programs from the Air Force and other organizations.
Stay ahead of the industry with exclusive feature stories on the top companies, expert insights and the latest news delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe today.
The massive proposed budget can be split into two stages according to the SDA; USD 582 million in baseline funding towards studies and roadmaps, and USD 10.6 billion for research, development, prototyping, testing, and deployment of satellite constellations, which the SDA calls 'layers'. As per the draft, the majority of the funding would flow in during the fiscal years 2024 and 2025. The total split across five years in the budget is proposed at USD 259 million in 2021, USD 1.08 billion in 2022, USD 1.92 billion in 2023, USD 3.67 billion in 2024, and USD 3.68 billion in 2025.
The SDA was set up in March 2019, under the office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin, who had argued that a separate agency was necessary to help bring lower-cost commercial space technology into the military systems. For the 2020 budget, The Pentagon had requested nearly USD 150 million to get SDA off the ground; USD 44.7 million for personnel, USD 20 million for space research and development, and USD 85 million for space technology prototyping.
Although the Senate Appropriations Committee had approved the request, the House appropriators were less supportive and voiced concerns that SDA will duplicate existing Air Force programs. As a result, the House Appropriations Committee cut the personnel funding request to USD 26.8 million, and the prototyping technology request to USD 35 million, fully funding only the Research and Development request of USD 20 million. With the Congress yet to pass a full-year budget, SDA still doesn’t know how much money it will receive in 2020.
