With Chinese Balloons In Mind, Appropriators May Plus-Up Radar Spending In FY24

Daily Report USA

When a Chinese spy balloon created an international incident by floating over the heart of the United States earlier this year, it prompted urgent discussions about what capabilities the Pentagon has to track objects above American soil. And as a result, a key lawmaker seemed to signal this week that his committee may be willing to increase funding for US Air Force radar systems in fiscal 2024.

During a Tuesday Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing the question of the spy balloon came up several times, but the most notable comments came from Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., the subcommittee chairman who controls the Pentagon’s purse strings. Speaking to leaders from the Department of the Air Force, Tester indicated he plans to support a call from US Northern Command for greater investment in homeland radar systems.

“The NORTHCOM commander has told us that he has additional unfunded requirements for Air Force over-the-horizon and long-range expeditionary radars,” Tester said. “We need to provide the resources, and I think this committee on both sides of the aisle wants to make sure our nation is safe, and provide the resources to do that.”

But how much the extra money NORTHCOM seeks would actually change the security picture is unclear, based on comments from Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall.

In response to Tester’s question, Kendall said the service has “funded two new over-the-horizon radar in the budget, there’s quite a bit of money in the budget to fill those and get them in place.” The NORTHCOM request, Kendall said, “is to accelerate that process on the margins. It’s not a fundamental change, it just tries to move it a little bit faster.”

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It’s not clear exactly what systems Tester was talking about. NORTHCOM’s unfunded priorities list sought $211.5 million to procure nine Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long Range Radars (3DELLR) systems, a replacement capability for the legacy AN/TPS-75 radar systems. The Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin a contract to produce 3DELLR, with initial operational capability expected in FY25. However, 3DELLR does not match the description of “over-the-horizon” systems.

“Senator Tester is still reviewing the budget and meeting with officials to make sure our military has what it needs to keep Americans safe,” a spokesman said in response to follow-up questions from Breaking Defense. “I can tell you that he is committed to securing a budget that provides funding to prevent future incursions of U.S. airspace.”

At the height of balloon-mania, Gen. Glen VanHerck, the commander of NORTHCOM, acknowledged there were holes in his tracking capability, saying, “It’s my responsibility to detect threats to North America. I will tell you that we did not detect those [previous] threats, and that’s a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out.” (As a result, the Pentagon temporarily changed the threshold for objects appearing on domestic radars.)

And the Pentagon did, in fact, add money to the budget specifically in the wake of the balloon incident, as Pentagon comptroller Mike McCord told press during the FY24 rollout.

“On the balloon, we did add some funding late in the process. Of course, the events occurred late in the process, late in the process of our build. Specifically on what I would call sensing and analysis in that particular set of altitudes and phenomenology,” McCord said March 13. “On this particular niche, if you will, we did add some funding to try and refine some capabilities on the back end.”

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During this week’s hearing, Tester also pushed Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown on what the service is doing to increase “our detection and assessment of the balloon issue.” Brown responded that there is a point person, Kristen Baldwin, leading efforts “not only for detection, but we’re also looking at all the other aspects of detection and tracking, and how you negate future threats like that.”

“What we’ve done is that we have a team that’s come together to take a look at all the various capabilities that we have as a department, but also outside of the Department of the Air Force that are in development, to figure out what the best tools are to counter threats like” the balloon, Brown said.

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