EXCLUSIVE: DoD memo seeks review of Space Development Agency’s independent status, plans
Space Development Agency Tracking Layer satellites will keep eyes on both ballistic and hypersonic missiles. (Graphic: L3Harris)
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department’s acquisition office is calling for a review of whether the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) “organizational performance and acquisition approach” is meeting the needs of warfighters — and whether the agency should keep its independent status within the Space Force, Breaking Defense has learned.
In a memo signed Jan. 31 and obtained by Breaking Defense, Steven Morani, who is performing the duties of the DoD undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, requests the Department of the Air Force to set up an “independent review team [IRT]” to assess “the current state of health” of all programs comprising SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA).
The Department of the Air Force is responsible for civilian oversight of the Space Force. While SDA has been given freedom to make some acquisition decisions outside of the usual Air Force acquisition system, oversight is still provided by the office of the assistant secretary for space acquisition and integration. Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, the office’s military deputy, is currently the acting head.
Morani’s memo — while stressing that the called-for review should not interfere with the ongoing investigation or current contracts — states that if the review team finds “any significant risks or issues related to contracting strategy, funding, schedule, or performance/capability delivery, the IRT should provide a characterization of impacts from these risks, with recommendations for corrective action.”
Importantly, it makes it clear that one such corrective action could be for DoD and the Air Force to strip SDA of its semi-independent status underneath the Space Force — with Morani tasking the review team to assess “the efficacy of the SDA’s organizational staffing, structure, processes, and position as a direct reporting unit within the United States Space Force (USSF).”
While signed, it is unclear whether the memo has been approved by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and if it has been officially circulated within the Department of the Air Force, the Space Force and SDA.
An Air Force spokesperson referred a request for comment to the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD); neither SDA or OSD responded to a request for comment by press time.
After initial congressional skepticism about its creation, SDA’s recent performance has been widely lauded on Capitol Hill as the kind of innovative and rapid acquisition approach that should be serving as a model for the rest of the Space Force’s acquisition programs managed by Space Systems Command (SSC).
However, several government sources told Breaking Defense that Space Force and SSC officials have been concerned that SDA has made no plans for how it will transition its satellites and ground stations to active operations by Space Force personnel. For example, it long has been unclear how the PWSA missile Tracking Layer will be integrated with SSC’s planned Resilient Missile Warning/Missile Tracking constellation in medium-Earth orbit, as well as the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared missile warning satellites now in development.
Nor, these sources said, has there been any Space Force budget planning for future operations of the PWSA network. SDA’s first operational satellites currently are expected to launch this spring.
The PWSA envisions multiple constellations of small satellites in low Earth orbit for rapid data relay, ballistic and hypersonic missile tracking, and “fire control” for missile interceptors, as well as their associated ground systems. SDA also is looking at the potential of equipping some of the PWSA-related birds with capabilities to back up the Global Positioning System satellites used for positioning, navigation and timing.
Leadership Drama At SDA
Morani’s memo also seems to explain the decision by the Air Force not to elevate the agency’s deputy, Ryan Frigm, to serve as acting director in the wake of the department’s Jan. 16 decision to place then-SDA director Derek Tournear on administrative leave for undisclosed reasons.
Instead, the Air Force first assigned Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, the head of SSC, to step in, and then just two days ago replaced him with William Blauser, deputy head of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.
The changeover came following concerns expressed by Sen. Kevin Cramer, R.-ND, that the choice of Garrant appeared to be a move to subordinate SDA to SSC in defiance of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act that stipulated the agency remain a separate organization, with a direct line to Space Force chief Gen. Chance Saltzman.
“Removing Derek Tournear from his duties as SDA director sends a chilling message to all DoD innovators: bureaucrats will oppose you and win every time,” Cramer said in a Feb. 5 statement to Breaking Defense. “By putting SDA under the control of SSC, it only compounded that warning. Congress specifically spelled out that SDA would be a direct reporting unit within Space Force, so we corrected the latter situation. We need to fix the former issue as soon as possible.”
Ashley Roque and Valerie Insinna contributed to this report.
Recommended
This article was originally published by a breakingdefense.com . Read the Original article here. .