So You Think You Can Dance?
ACQUISITION PERSPECTIVES FROM THE SPACE FORCE’S RAPID CAPABILITIES OFFICE by MATTHEW FETROW and MONICA HILBERT
have had monumental implications on what space capabilities we need, and therefore what space capabilities we acquire . A few years after that ASAT test, big thinkers like retired Air Force Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, Doug Lov- erro, and Tom Cristler planted seeds for approaches to making our on-orbit space service capabilities more re- silient while determining how to en- sure that the space industry would be there to support new approaches. They introduced concepts that are now mainstream, such as prolifer- ated architectures and distributed missions. Coupled with the proven success of reusable rockets, not only has industry risen to the occasion in forging these new approaches, but
the Space Development Agency has turned this vision into acquisition suc- cess for the U.S. Space Force (USSF) with their initial tranches for prolifer- ated space services. Even then, a growing understand- ing emerged that resilience was nec- essary yet insufficient and that more rapid acquisition of space capabilities was needed to defend U.S. and allied space capabilities as well as hold an adversary’s space assets at risk when called upon. Although in 2017–2018, congressional battles were ongoing about the creation of USSF, it was clear that would be a long process and that the threat wasn’t waiting . Thus, a full year prior to creation of the na- tion’s newest uniformed Service, the 2018 National Defense Authorization
Act established the Space Rapid Ca- pabilities Office (Space RCO) to help
address that gap. Don’t Crawl, Don’t Walk, Run!
By definition, a “Rapid Capabili- ties Office” is meant to go fast; we didn’t have the luxury of deliberate organizational planning. The Depart- ment of the Air Force Special Order GD-006 formally activated the Office on Dec. 14, 2018, and our first Board of Directors convened and assigned us our first programs to execute that same month. We quickly executed the “Organize” and “Equip” functions for the organi- zation and established teams of highly skilled experts across all functional
March-April 2025 | DEFENSE ACQUISITION | 55
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