Pentagon cancels classified satellite program due to lack of budget

Northrop Grumman, a US-based aerospace and defense technology company, stated that the project was terminated due to insufficient funding from the Pentagon.

On Thursday, the Pentagon halted the classified satellite program, in which Northrop Grumman was a contractor. The company announced that the Pentagon’s budgetary concerns led to the program’s cancellation.

“On the restricted program, there’s very little I can say given the nature of that program, except to say that the Air Force canceled that program largely due to budgetary concerns and prioritization, but the requirement likely does still exist, and so we will see how that plays out over time,” CEO Kathy Warden said on Thursday.

The cancellation reduced Northrop’s “unfunded backlog” of potential orders for which the company has not yet received funding by approximately $1.6 billion. After these cuts, the first program to be canceled was Space Force.

The program’s cancellation is believed to be linked to the Pentagon’s transition from acquiring large, expensive satellites to deploying numerous small, cost-effective satellites in orbit.

Source: Newsroom