A GPS-improvement project is among the quick-start efforts to be launched by the Air Force. This April 2024 photo shows a GPS receiver at Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, California. U.S. Marine Corps / Lance Cpl. Richard PerezGarcia
In a budgetary first, Air Force will launch two programs without asking Congress in advance
The service is using a power granted by lawmakers in the 2024 NDAA.
The Air Force is using a brand-new authority to launch a pair of development efforts ahead of the next budget cycle, at least partially fulfilling the dreams of many who have chafed under the annual system.
The service will start projects to improve GPS and track moving targets under the “quick-start initiative” greenlit by lawmakers in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. It allows service secretaries to launch new efforts as threats arise.
“The Department of the Air Force has obtained approval from the Secretary of Defense for two programs that will be initiated under this new authority. They are a resilient, national GPS position, navigation, and timing capability, and [command, control, communications] battle management for moving target indication,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said today during a Senate Armed Services committee hearing.
Kendall originally asked for $300 million per year for the initiative, but Congress knocked that down to $100 million in the final NDAA, a figure that will be split between the services.
“Due to the support from Congress, this new authority gives services a tool to respond to unexpected threats, leverage emerging technological advancement or help mitigate delays in responding to threats caused by inherent limitations of the traditional budget process, as recently highlighted by the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution Reform Commission,” the service said today in a statement.
Air Force officials have emphasized that this isn’t a slush fund, but rather an authority to take money from under-executing or low-priority efforts to fund other programs.
The money will start research and development for the two efforts, which will be formally included in the fiscal 2026 budget.
Details on the programs are slim because both efforts are classified, but officials have said that resilient GPS and moving target indication are major priorities, needed to maintain an advantage in space.