Space Training and Readiness Command tests the Remote Modular Terminal (RMT), a new system from the Space Rapid Capabilities Office. Source: U.S. Space Force photo by Isaac Blancas This photo was cropped to show detail. This image was edited using multiple filters and dodging and burning techniques.
T here is an art to organizationally mastering the balance of cost, schedule, and performance and doing the “acquisition cha-cha” at speed and scale. Of course, acquisition’s “dance partner”—the associated capabilities analysis and require- ments system—must be equally agile and talented for the dance to work effectively. And sometimes … it doesn’t. The threat gets a vote, which can challenge or accelerate previously assessed capability needs, as do congressional appropriators, who can drive budget fluctuations and inadvertently wreak havoc for program executive officers (PEOs) and their program managers (PMs).
In space acquisition, the threat has been very, very busy. Eighteen years ago, China conducted an anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test, destroying one of its own weather satellites, resulting in the largest debris field in space to date. The Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman referred to that
day as a “pivot point” (no dance-pun intended) for space: “I just remember vividly the feeling that this is a pivot point in the space community and in space operations, and that we’re going [to] have to look differently about how we operate space from that day on.”
It also meant that space acquisi- tion would be forever changed, be- cause space was no longer a peace- ful sanctuary for all nations. From that day, China’s trajectory in developing both counterspace capabilities as well as developing its own space services has been dizzying. China’s actions
54 | DEFENSE ACQUISITION | March-April 2025
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