WASHINGTON: The Space Force’s new acquisition unit, Space Systems Command (SSC), is expected to stand up early next year, says Gen. Jay Raymond, chief of Space Operations.
“A final plan for the Space Systems Command is done,” he told reporters today in a briefing to reflect on the new service’s status as it approaches its first birthday Dec. 20. “I just took a briefing within the last couple days and kind of did the table slap on what the Space Systems Command is going to look like, at least initially as it comes out of the chute. We’ve got to get that to our Secretary of the Air Force here in the coming weeks, and then we’ll start building that. But we’ve got the design down, and I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out.”
But Raymond did not address the burning question of who will have decision authority over the new command: the current head of Air Force and Space Force acquisition, Will Roper; or a new independent Space Force acquisition authority.
Up to now, the Air Force still hasn’t submitted to Congress its long-overdue plan for creating a new civilian acquisition authority for space. The report, due in March, was required by the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. The bill mandates that the Air Force appoint a Senate-confirmed assistant secretary for space acquisition and integration, who “will synchronize with the Air Force Service Acquisition Executive on all space system efforts, and take on service acquisition executive (SAE) responsibilities for space systems and programs effective on October 1, 2022.”
As Breaking D readers know, DoD also has been struggling with the bigger task of streamlining space acquisition organization. The idea is for SSC (at least initially) to serve as an umbrella organization for a number of space acquisition organizations that currently operate independently from each other. These include Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), the Space Rapid Capabilities Office (SpRCO), the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate, and DoD’s Space Development Agency (SDA). It also will eventually fold in some of the Navy and Army organizations responsible for space acquisition. But it remains unclear whether SSC will have the authority to actually direct the disparate agencies rolled into it or simply serve a coordinating function.
For example, the Air Force has faced pushback on the Hill about including SpRCO, which handles classified space programs. As Breaking D readers were first to know, there also are highly politicized debates simmering about where both the Missile Defense Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office fit into the acquisition landscape as DoD attempts to collapse the some 60 different organizations with fingers in the pie.
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Raymond said only that SSC will build on the effort by Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) to streamline and speed its development and acquisition programs, called SMC 2.0. SMC 2.0 “transitioned the Space and Missile System Center in into taking a more enterprise look across the board, so this [SSC] builds on that — builds some unity of effort in; allows competition between disruptors and prototypers and more traditional acquisition organizations; and really pushes down authority to lower levels that allows us to move at speed.”
This, of course, does not address the central questions of who runs what and why.
Raymond wouldn’t be drawn on what SSC’s top priorities will be next year, relying on the argument that the fiscal year 2022 budget has not been announced (can you say, pre-decisional?) As Breaking D readers know, the Trump administration intends to take the unusual move of dropping a formal budget request before President-elect Joe Biden takes over — a budget that would slash Air Force and Army programs to fund an expanded Navy. Space Force, President Trump’s pet project, is expected to be spared the knife.
That said, Raymond did explain that “force design” — i.e., how personnel and resources will be allocated to do what jobs — will be “a big priority” for next year. The overarching goal of the design is to balance among “being able to protect the capabilities that you have in space today; shifting to a more defendable architecture; third, being able to develop the capabilities that US Space Command needs to accomplish their UCP [Unified Command Plan] mission of conducting offensive and defensive space operations; and then fourth, looking at what other new missions transfer or transition to the space domain.”