SecAF Nominee Kendall Expected To Deep Dive On Space Acquisition

UPDATED: To add comment from former SecAF Heather Wilson and HASC Chair Adam Smith. WASHINGTON: Frank Kendall has a reputation as a tough nut — having wrestled to the ground any number of messy DoD programs when he led the Obama Pentagon’s acquisition shop —  including the troubled OCX operating system for GPS, and the aftermath of the Army’s Future Combat System disaster.

So maybe he is just what DoD needs in an Air Force Secretary as it struggles to sort out the tangled lines of budgetary and decision-making authority for the Air and Space Force, say a number of former DoD officials.

UPDATE BEGINS. “Frank Kendall is exactly the kind of public servant we need at the helm of the Air Force at a time when the service is navigating so many unique challenges, including effective acquisition to meet our nation’s future threats,” Rep. Adam Smith, House Armed Services Committee chairman. Smith, who is a long-time proponent of acquisition reform, has routinely expressed frustration with cost/schedule overruns in major DoD programs, such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. UPDATE ENDS.

Colleagues at Defense News broke the news today that Kendall, a top Biden defense advisor, would be nominated as SecAF — with Gina Oritz Jones as the deputy.

“I’ve been expecting it and am very pleased — he will be great,” enthused one former senior DoD official.

“He has operational experience, a proven track record as an acquisition reformer, and understands next generation technologies/what is required to compete with China,” said Mitchell Institute’s Mark Gunzinger.

“My personal point of view is that Frank’s choice is brilliant. I don’t know of anyone with more experience and expertise — the Service (and the country) would be very well served,” said Robert Cardillo, former director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and who has just joined Planet Federal (satellite firm Planet’s US government sales arm) as chief strategist and chairman of the board.

Kendall was DoD acquisition czar from 2012 to 2016, and made a name as a reformer with his Better Buying Power initiatives. Kendall also fought a losing battle against the late Sen. John McCain’s powerful effort to shift responsibility for major acquisition programs from OSD to the services. His taking this service position thus will be somewhat ironic and reflective of that power shift.

Interestingly, he also is a West Point classmate of Sen. Jack Reed, who now chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee. Both graduated in 1971.

Word on the street is that some in the space community are already leery about what they fear will be beady-eyed oversight from the top. More hands-on civilian control would be a change from the relatively free rein military space leaders have enjoyed since the creation of Space Command and Space Force (2018 and 2019 respectively) by an enthusiastically supportive President Trump.

Further, some in the air power community note that Kendall is an Army veteran, adding to the ranks of ex-Army officials in the Pentagon’s top tier — and perhaps leading to some bias in the upcoming budget battles. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is a retired Army general, and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley is also an Army officer.

Of course, Kendall is unlikely to help his former service since his role as SecAF is almost certain to drive his decisions. And there’s the fact that the Pacific theater, with its vast distances, is central to many strategic and budgetary decisions, with Milley himself warning that his own service faces a budgetary “bloodletting” to fund the sea, space and air priorities for a future fight with China.

UPDATE BEGINS. “Frank Kendall has deep understanding of the Pentagon and acquisition in particular. With a flat budget, tension on roles and missions, and growing competition in the Pacific, he is well prepared for the role,” said former SecAF Heather Wilson in an email. UPDATE ENDS.

The nominee for Air Force undersecretary, Jones, served in the Air Force from 2003 to 2006 as an intelligence officer, including a deployment to Iraq. She joined the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2018 as an adviser specializing in Latin America. In 2016 she joined the the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. She quit in 2017 during the Trump administration — publicly citing concerns about the professionalism of appointees.

“The type of people that were brought in to be public servants were interested in neither the public nor the service,” Jones told the Huffington Post. 

She ran for a House seat in largely Hispanic 23rd District in Texas in 2018 as a Democrat, making waves as potentially the “first lesbian, Iraq War vet and Filipina-American to fill a U.S. House seat in Texas,” HuffPo wrote. She narrowly lost (by slightly more than 1,000 votes) to Republican William Hurd. She ran again in the 2020 race, but once again lost narrowly to her Republican opponent Tony Gonzales, a former Navy cryptologist and a protege of Sen. Mark Rubio.

With the Air Force and Army spots now filled, the one remaining civilian service leadership slot is for Navy Secretary.

Colin contributed to this story.