Q Multiple agencies have responsibilities for U.S. interests in space, like Space RCO [Rapid Capabilities Office], Space Systems Command [SCC], and NASA. Where does SDA fit in this picture and how are you coordinating and collaborating with those different organizations? A. For SDA, it’s really, really easy. We’re the low Earth orbit people. We’re developing something known as the PWSA. It’s a massively proliferated constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit. That’s really what we concentrate on ver- sus Space RCO, that’s doing more classified work and SSC, which has a huge portfolio mostly in middle Earth orbit and geostationary Earth orbit. So, we do have a clear delineation of responsibilities, and there’s really not too much duplication of effort. We do work with SSC. We also have a good relationship with the Missile Defense Agency. Space Force was set up very cleverly. Each of the three acquisition organizations has our own contracting author- ity and our own head of contracting activity. So, we kind of control what we do. What they did that was smart, though, was set up the Space Acquisition Executive for the Space Force, so a lot of coordination happens at that level. Obviously SSC owns the launch enterprise. I think we’re going to be one of their biggest customers given the num- ber of launches we have planned. So, we do coordinate with them on that front as well.
Q As the inaugural member of the SDA Contracts Cell, you built a contracting organization from scratch, I believe. How did you begin this monumental effort? Can you discuss some of the hurdles and successes during that journey? A. Yeah, it was quite a journey. I was literally the second employee here at SDA. I’d say when we started one of the toughest things was just letting people know we ex- isted. When we were stood up, we were another defense agency, so we were completely independent. We then had a second sort of rebirth, sort of a second stand-up when we were moved to the Space Force in FY 2023. So, to a certain extent, we had to go through that process all over again. We had to get a new DoDAAC [DoD identification code], a new contract writing system, and sort of familiar- ize ourselves with certain Air Force policies that we hadn’t followed in the past. It’s kind of been an ongoing struggle. I think we’re in a good place now. The Air Force has done a good job integrating us in their process. At first, we kind of had to sink or swim on our own, so it was a challenge. But I think we were able to overcome that fairly quickly. Q SDA has been praised for your success in navigating what’s traditionally a very slow DoD acquisition process. How are you leveraging different commercial technologies and different authorities to achieve this? A. Well, I’ll start with the authorities first. We were given just about every helpful authority you could imagine. We had our own head of the contracting activity, our own Se-
Note. BMC3 = Battle Management Command Control and Communications, CCMDS = Combatant Commands, IR = infrared Source: Space Development Agency
30 | DEFENSE ACQUISITION | March-April 2025
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