By Marina Malenic

Expressing concern that the Air Force is "playing games" with important military satellite acquisitions, John Young — undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics — said a reorganization of management for Department of Defense space programs may be necessary.

The undersecretary of the Air Force is the Pentagon executive agent for space, but Young said there are too many conflicting interests at work within that office.

"I would have never made the Air Force" the executive agent for space, he told reporters during a Pentagon briefing. "The Air Force undersecretary is the Air Force undersecretary."

Each service recently handed Young its next six-year spending plan, or program objective memorandum (POM). Young said the air service’s clear underfunding of milsatcom programs in its POM was telling.

"Based on the Air Force POM, they’re not performing well" as the lead service on space efforts, he said. "There are too many games being played" with those programs, he added.

One possible remedy, he said, was to create an independent office to budget space programs. Young said there were no plans in place to do so now, however, so such a task would fall to the next president’s administration.

However, Young said he wasn’t "picking on the Air Force" in particular, noting that service leaders across the board have conducted similar financial schemes to varying degrees.

"In fact, that was one thing that made it hard to close" the 2010 budget plan, he said.

Young said a number of space programs received a great deal of attention from his office when that document was crafted last month. He singled out the Transformational Satellite (TSAT) program, estimated to be a $20 billion effort to provide secure communications to soldiers, sailors and airmen on the move.

"The Air Force budget underfunded TSAT," Young said. "We could have awarded a contract and then worked through" the technical issues, he said. However, due to the funding difficulties, "we could not execute it" in time for a December award.

The Boeing Co. [BA] and a Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT] industry team are competing for the contract.

Young said the requirement for the system will remain in place into the next administration.

"It has been painful for all us," Young said, referring to this year’s budget drafting. "There are people that care deeply about what is in the budget and want to leave behind a quality budget input for the next administration, fully expecting that budget will change."