AF Defends National Airspace Security Plan, Says Initial Auditors' Comments Off Base

The U.S. Air Force says its plan to prevent another terrorist attack using hijacked jets is on track, despite service auditors' comments that the program is over budget and behind schedule.

The service plans to award another estimated $47 million in work by February for the Battle Control Systems, a national airspace security network charged with a variety of defense missions, including stopping drug smuggling.

The initial contract for the first part of the program, called Battle Control System-Fixed (BCS-F), was worth about $30 million. But the cost of follow-on work is coming to more than three times that amount, and Air Force officials acknowledge that the final cost could be hundreds of millions of dollars.

The service said this is all part of a "spiral development" acquisition plan which provides greater capability over a period of time with incremental cost increases.

The program consists of a fixed network for national airspace protection, BCS-F, and a mobile one for more tactical operations, Battle Control System-Mobile. BCS-F is for the first two spirals and both BCS-F and BCS-M are for the third spiral.

"The most important thing to take away is that the BCS-F Spiral development approach is progressing as planned, and any assertion of schedule delays or cost overruns reflects a misunderstanding of the program and evolutionary acquisition," Air Force officials from Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts said in e-mailed comments.

A Nov.