[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 30 (Thursday, March 17, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 17, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
              LEGISLATION TO TERMINATE THE MILSTAR PROGRAM

  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I am pleased to join Senator Bumpers in 
introducing legislation to terminate the Milstar Satellite Program. 
This bill would result in an estimated savings of $3.9 billion over 5 
years.
  The Milstar satellite is, quite frankly, an anachronism. Some have 
called it a dinosaur of the cold war. It was designed in the 1980's as 
a super-secret program to provide secure communications during a 
nuclear exchange. The satellite is built to survive a 6-month nuclear 
war.
  Is this the kind of capability that we need? Clearly, the answer is 
no. Milstar has features for which we have absolutely no use in a post-
cold-war world. Our satellites do not need to be hardened from a 
nuclear blast, nor do they need to perform complex maneuvers to avoid 
antisatellite weapons. Yet, Milstar has these capabilities, as well as 
others that add weight to the satellite and cost to the program.
  Top defense officials have told me that Milstar is no longer needed. 
The General Accounting Office [GAO] and the Rand Corp. have studied 
Milstar and raised very serious concerns about continuing the program. 
They conclude that we can both save money and put a more capable system 
in place by terminating Milstar. Frankly, I haven't found too many 
people who are supportive of Milstar. This is a perfect example of a 
system that we can afford to do without.

  How costly is Milstar, Mr. President? It is expensive, even by 
Department of Defense standards. We have already spent over $10 billion 
on the program, and the Department of Defense projects we will spend 
over $10 billion more. Each satellite alone costs $1 billion to 
construct. In addition, Milstar is so heavy that it can only be 
launched by our most powerful rocket, the $400 million Titan IV-
Centaur. The Titan IV, by the way, is our least reliable launch 
vehicle. One blew up during a launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base just 
last year.
  For all this tremendous expenditure, we will get a satellite that 
does not even meet the current needs of our military forces. Milstar 
has a low data transmission capacity designed to carry messages from 
the national command authority to our nuclear commanders. Today, our 
military needs a satellite system that links up conventional 
battlefield commanders and handles very high amounts of data. Milstar 
can't adequately meet this requirement.
  According to program assessment, a more modern and more capable 
satellite can be designed and launched for significantly less than 
Milstar. Despite this fact, the military plans to build both Milstar 
and a follow-on system. I believe we would be better served to cut 
Milstar right now. We are working under severe budget pressures and 
straining to provide the funding necessary to keep our military trained 
and ready. There is not need to allocate valuable resources to a 
program that we simply cannot afford or justify.

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