DAF shakes up space acquisition leadership, Purdy takes ‘senior advisor’ role
Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhageh has taken over Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy's former role of military deputy to the Office of Space Acquisition and Integration.
Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhageh has taken over Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy's former role of military deputy to the Office of Space Acquisition and Integration.
Tom Ainsworth has been named as the Air Force's top space acquisition officer, taking over from Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy who will remain in place as Ainsworth's military deputy.
The fresh approach is meant to streamline weapons procurement and cut through bureaucracy, though details like exactly what authorities new Portfolio Acquisition Executives will have are being worked out.
In this exclusive op-ed, four of the Pentagon's top acquisition officers send a message to their workforce: Accountability isn't punishment, it's liberation.
"I look forward to working with [Air Force] Secretary Meink and the service to make sure the language in the NDAA is fully implemented," Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Mike Rogers, R.-Ala., told Breaking Defense today.
Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy said that if he had "a Christmas wish list" for acquisition reform, "funding flexibility" would be at the top of it.
The Space Rapid Capabilities Office already is seeing an impact from the congressional impasse on reauthorizing Pentagon use of Small Business Innovation Program grants, Director Kelly Hammett said.
"[W]hat is the appetite [among operators] for fast, rapid delivery of capability, because that capability will not be the 100 percent capability," said Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, acting head of space acquisition at the Air Force.
Gen. Michael Guetlein, the Pentagon Golden Dome czar, said on Tuesday that the "real technical challenge" for the effort will be building space-based interceptors to knock down enemy missiles in their boost phase.
The idea behind the commercial reviews is to find potential alternatives for "getting us out of one-off, billion-dollar systems into a proliferated architecture," said Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy.
Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy walked through activities to flesh out former space acquisition czar Frank Calvelli's "nine space acquisition tenets" that showcased how the Space Force is positioned to meet expected guidance from new Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for accelerating weapons system development.