New satellite fleet faces delays

WASHINGTON -- The United States could face gaps in forecasting and tracking hurricanes and other severe weather because of $3 billion in cost overruns and a three-year delay in a new satellite program, officials said yesterday.

The first of the next generation satellites may not be launched until 2012, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told the House Science Committee. Should the last of the current fleet fail, the gap in weather data could reach four years.

Raytheon Co., the subcontractor on one of the three most problematic of the sophisticated instruments each satellite would carry, has fired and replaced its technical team. Massachusetts-based Raytheon also has stretched out development of the instrument, an infrared camera crucial in predicting hurricanes, according to committee testimony and documents. Northrop-Grumman Corp. is the project's main contractor.

''This is a depressing case of failure and perhaps incompetence," said Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican.

Polar-orbiting satellites provide daily, high-resolution images of the globe and account for more than 90 percent of the data used in civilian and military weather predictions, said Ronald Sega, undersecretary of the Air Force.

It is ''a program in crisis," said David Powner of the Government Accountability Office.