With NDAA, Congress twists Space Force’s arm on beefing up acquisition chops

WASHINGTON — The recently passed fiscal 2026 defense policy bill includes a shot across the Space Force’s bow in its long-running spat with Capitol Hill over what lawmakers contend is a lack of focus on its acquisition workforce in favor of operators.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) instructs the Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink to ensure that the number of trained Guardians in acquisition billets is bolstered to and maintained at a “comparable level” to that in operational billets. It also requires a first report on progress two months after the bill is signed by President Donald Trump, which he expected to do today. Similar reports are due “not later than” Oct. 31 through 2030.

The congressional move follows a year of pressure on the service about the need for a stronger acquisition corps led by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R.-Ala., and Ranking Member Adam Smith, D-Wash. The two in December 2024 issued a strongly worded letter on the issue to Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman.

“Space warfighting is a highly technical affair, and our success requires improvements in acquisition. As the Pentagon and the Space Force work to implement the acquisition changes required by the NDAA and [Defense] Secretary [Pete] Hegseth, it’s critical that the Space Force grow and develop its acquisition workforce,” Rogers told Breaking Defense in a statement today.

“I look forward to working with [Air Force] Secretary Meink and the service to make sure the language in the NDAA is fully implemented,” he added.

The fact that the NDAA language is directed at Meink rather than Saltzman is significant, according to one congressional staffer familiar with the issue, because it signals that lawmakers remain concerned that the Space Force chief hasn’t taken their admonitions to heart.

Four Pentagon sources have told Breaking Defense that Saltzman, as a graduate and former instructor of the Air Force weapons school, has focused on operations over acquisition capabilities since he took on the position of service chief in 2022. That predilection, these sources said, has only been fanned by the high priority Hegseth has put on “warfighting” over the past year.

That said, Saltzman in recent speeches has stressed the importance of the acquisition workforce.

In September, he told the annual Air Force Association conference that 49 percent of Guardian officers are in acquisition jobs, and that acquisition isn’t just a “support function,” but a “warfighting imperative.” He also announced a new Acquisition Initial Qualification Training program for officers.

Most recently, at a Nov. 20 event sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Saltzman said that developing an “operationally savvy group of acquisition experts” is the “perhaps the most critical element” to rapidly get improved capabilities into the field.

During that same speech, however, he said that while all Guardians would be trained in all cyber and space operations skills, only a “portion of them will become acquisition competent” and develop “deeper skills” in that career path.

“[H]aving that foundation of operations, I think, is essential,” Saltzman added.

Somewhat tellingly, according to the congressional staffer, Saltzman’s CSIS presentation was followed by a roundtable during which Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, Air Force acting space acquisition czar, bemoaned a lack of qualified acquisition personnel to meet the need.

First, he said, there have been rounds of personnel cuts and then the long-running government shutdown that put pressure on the already too-small acquisition workforce trying to move programs along.

“We also have a looming increase in acquisitions coming down the pike, and so that presents us with a really difficult situation of where we need to double down on our acquisition workforce, our acquisition training. We are in a situation where we barely have enough acquirers to do all of the work that we have now,” Purdy added.