WASHINGTON — The pinnacle of the Space Development Agency — a U.S. Space Force organization that uses unconventional procurement methods to amass satellites and construct an area network — is pushing back at critics who presumably don’t want the military acquisition culture to vary, SDA’s director Derek Tournear said in a recent social media post.
“Recently, I used to be told to stop playing the role of ‘bad cop’ on behalf of the Space Development Agency and our mission. It was suggested that I’d damage relationships amongst my peers,” Tournear wrote.
Established just 4 years ago, SDA is moving ahead with an ambitious plan to construct a low-Earth orbit constellation of communications and missile-detection satellites by counting on a broad base of suppliers for commercially produced spacecraft and laser communications terminals.
In its early days SDA faced opposition from Air Force leaders and skepticism on Capitol Hill. But it surely has since gained widespread support and has been recognized as a “constructive disruptor for space acquisition.”
SDA’s boss Frank Calvelli, assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration, has championed the agency’s methods of shopping for satellites as a model for the Space Force to follow in other programs.
“We actually need to go fast, now we have got to stop the standard way of constructing satellites, and the kind of large seven-year cost-plus contracts and go to smaller systems which can be more proliferated,” Calvelli said last 12 months at an industry symposium.
Blowback from the acquisition bureaucracy
Tournear’s post suggests the recent blowback is coming from contained in the DoD bureaucracy.
He said SDA’s unconventional approach has helped achieve some progress — with two successful satellite launches achieved in 2023 — but is being met with resistance from defenders of the established system.
“While I’m happy with SDA’s progress, the trail to 2 successful launches was paved with the challenges — and yes, sometimes scars — of constructing an acquisition ecosystem inside, and against, the established order,” Tournear wrote.
There are entrenched interests inside the defense procurement establishment that feel threatened by SDA’s model, he noted. But to deliver technologies that DoD must modernize its space architecture, “now we have no selection but to vary,” Tournear added. “Change is tough; change is vital. And nothing fights change just like the paralyzing behavior of going along to get along.”
Traditional DoD space programs have focused on developing technologies regardless of how long it took, Tournear added. “SDA flips that paradigm to deliver what is prepared on schedule — when the warfighter needs it.” For that reason, “constructive disruption required someone to play the ‘bad cop.’”
Tournear in his post staunchly defended SDA’s approach, emphasizing that military forces need access to cutting-edge technologies in a timely manner and that the standard methods often have fallen short.
“I cannot stand by and watch wasteful, thoughtless procedures that can only profit our enemies by delaying delivery to the warfighter,” he wrote. “Calling that out won’t all the time make friends, but it should make our nation stronger.”