Space Force Should Heed Commercial Practices.

• Author: Steenburg, Robert Van
• Position: NDIA Policy Points

* When the Defense Department created the Space Force in 2019, one goal was to accelerate acquisition for space systems, services and software.

As Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., said during a recent House Appropriations Committee hearing, "Too often over the past two decades, space acquisition programs have been delivered late and over budget."

While the issues of slow acquisition and innovation go beyond the Defense Department and the space enterprsie, for the Space Force, the problems are existential. To achieve its goals, the service must adopt best practices from government and commercial organizations; educate, train, and enable its acquisition workforce to make decisions; accept reasonable risks; and learn from mistakes.

Leveraging commercial innovation and establishing a trained, experienced acquisition workforce that can effectively balance commercial and government-only capabilities will deliver the acquisition and innovation impact that the Space Force requires.

"The U.S. Space Force is facing huge acquisition challenges with a critical need for experienced personnel," said Scott Pace, professor and director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. "New legislative authorities are not as important as getting good people in place. In particular, resources are needed to train and educate national security space acquisition professionals, direct hires from industry, and transfers from other services."

Pace focused his comments on workforce because he recognizes the challenge is not a lack of innovation in the space domain--the challenge is that most innovation happens in the commercial sector, which is unburdened by large multiyear programs of record.

With more than 80 percent of the Space Force's $15.2 billion budget going toward buying hardware, software and services, the ability to be innovative is critical. While the organization tries to determine how to make trades within its portfolio, every dollar it expects to receive over the next five years is matched against a program and vendor who will fight to protect their program. Commercial companies experiment, fail, learn, and try again almost immediately. Companies such as SpaceX, Microsoft and Maxar are, to borrow from former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, "Moving at the speed of relevance."

These commercial companies may have adopted their culture from the early years of military space. Back then, defense leaders...