The Pentagon’s plan to reduce military spending by $487 billion over the next decade was met with serious concern in the space sector after it was published Jan. 27 as part of the military’s 2013 full-year budget. Analysts, however, see a positive for satellite.
   While total U.S. defense spending is expected decline 22 percent from its peak in 2010, analysts predicted that military satellite and space spending would fare much better than the budget as a whole. Raymond James Analyst Chris Quilty said he has confidence in this prediction, given the fact that the United States’ dominance of space is expected to be a key discriminator on future battlefields. 
   “The Pentagon emphasizes in the report that space systems are ‘critical to our surveillance, communications, positioning, and networking capabilities,’ and that funding will be ‘protected’ for needed upgrades to the GPS, SBIRS, and AEHF programs,” said Quilty. “Aside from the cancellation of the Global Hawk UAV program, which has experienced severe cost overruns, the Pentagon actually intends to increase spending on UAVs to support a minimum of 65 combat air patrols.”