Defense Acquisition Research Journal #109

https://www.dau.edu

Maj Roman Tillman, USSF

This qualitative research study surveyed 45 DoD acquisition professionals to identify best practices applicable to future Space Force acquisition doctrine. The study hypothesized that ample institutional best practice knowledge exists across the DoD to inform the development of the Space Force’s first-ever acquisition doctrine document. The analysis used manual data review, NVivo software, and two AI tools (OpenAI's ChatGPT 4.0 and Anthropic’s Claude 3 Opus) to compare, validate, and triangulate broader DoD best practices to current Space Force acquisition policies and reform reports. Research findings indicated moderate to strong alignment to these documents and revealed emergent best practices that reinforce the proposed space acquisition doctrine blueprint. Using the blueprint developed in this study, the Space Force can develop acquisition doctrine not as a point of departure but to lead the Service toward reemphasizing the importance of acquisition as a warfighting spacepower discipline. If the study serves as one small step for space acquisition doctrine, it has achieved its purpose.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22594/dau.24-929.32.02 Keywords: Defense, Space Force, doctrine, qualitative research, artificial intelligence, best practices, ChatGPT, NVivo

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Defense ARJ, Summer 2025, Vol. 32 No. 2: 132—193

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