Unpacking the Nine Space Acquisition Tenets (Part 1 of 3)

Nine months ago, Honorable Frank Calvelli, the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisitions and Integration or ASAF(SA&I), issued a memorandum to the entire Department of the Air Force space acquisition workforce outlining nine space acquisition tenets as a means to induce reform into the traditional ways of conducting space acquisitions. These conventional approaches often led to warfighting capabilities being delivered that were over budget and over schedule. Worse yet were situations where the threat or mission need outpaced the ability for the acquisition process to deliver the required capability.

The nine tenets or principles outlined in the memo serve to undergird the Department’s top three priorities for space acquisitions: (1) drive speed into the acquisitions, (2) transform the space architecture to be more resilient, and (3) integrate that space architecture "with other warfighting domains and across the Department's Operational Imperatives." ?This article recaps the first three of those tenets; later articles will address the remaining six.

Tenet #1: Build Smaller Satellites, Smaller Ground Systems, and Minimize Non-Recurring Engineering. This first tenet may be the most important as it gets to the heart of the first space acquisition priority of “driving speed into the acquisitions.”? A way to readily summarize this tenet is time, technology, and transition. Time – building (or, in some cases, buying) smaller systems serves to shed years off traditional 'large-scale' program acquisitions. Technology – establishing shorter timelines allow greater use of current technologies and help speed up the technology refresh cycles with subsequent capability deliveries. Transition – creating faster acquisition timelines and current technology enable delivery and transition of operationally-relevant capabilities to the warfighter at the ‘speed of need.’?

Tenet #2: Get the Acquisition Strategy Correct. This second tenet is foundational to the first tenet. It serves to instill confidence and credibility into a more responsive acquisition process. This tenet is about acquisition discipline, decisiveness, and delivery. Discipline must apply during the initial phase when determining contract type, appropriately selecting and tailoring the acquisition based on the available paths as detailed via DoDD 5000.01 and DoDI 5000.02 and limiting contract deliverables to critical items. Decisiveness is required to establish "clear, specific, unambiguous Statements of Work (SOWs), concepts of operations (CONOPS), and requirements," as well as identify clear roles between government and industry and lanes of communication within the contract construct. Instilling discipline and determining a decisive contracting construct when establishing the acquisition strategy increases the likelihood of a successful capability delivery that is on time and on budget. ?

Tenet #3: Enable Teamwork Between Contracting Officer and Program Manager. This tenet drives home the need for a 'right-balanced' partnering arrangement between the contracting officer and the respective program manager. Or, more appropriately, enabling the necessary teaming arrangement between a given program manager and the program manager's individual contracting officer. While the contracting officer is uniquely authorized to obligate funds on the government's behalf, the program manager is ultimately responsible and accountable for the success and outcomes of the program itself. This tenet is intended to emphasize the importance of this arrangement and symbiotic partnership toward the success of the program and the delivery of warfighting capability.

As presented, these first three space acquisition tenets address what Calvelli considers to be imperative “as threats to space systems continue to evolve” and “as space becomes even more important in protecting and giving an advantage” to the joint force and "timely delivery of space capabilities becomes even more critical for the Nation." ??

Dennis Stocker is a Senior Project Leader with The Aerospace Corporation supporting Department of the Air Force programs as part of the National Space Security Engineering group within the Defense Systems Operations Division, Defense Systems Group. He serves as an on-site technical liaison in the Pentagon for space control, combat power, and space domain awareness acquisition and development programs.?

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