One Small Step for Space Acquisition Doctrine
• Discuss urgent needs development process (e.g., rapid satellite reconstitution) and how the acquisition community serves to push speed-of-need (i.e., describe how acquisition professionals respond to urgent needs). • Provide an overview of the connection between acquisition and the budget cycle, emphasizing realistic timelines for those outside the acquisition community to better understand. This includes understanding the stages from requirements development through contracting to planning budget requests for technology transition to programs of record. (S/T/PE/BB) Chapter 4: Space Force Acquisition Core Tenets • (S/T/PE/BB) Warfighter/User-Focus. Constantly engage with the end-user and stakeholder to ensure requirements meet the warfighting need. Leverage and mimic the IMD framework, highlighting the importance of collocating operations and sustainment. (Note: The Space Force collocates operations and research and development—another exemplar of creative teaming.) • (S/T/BB) Adaptive Acquisition. It is imperative to get the acquisition strategy right. Leverage OTAs, appropriate Cost- Plus/Fixed Price contract mixes, and agile approaches to increase delivery speed. Develop clear SOWs, concepts of operation, and requirements. Incentive and milestone payments should be used strategically to encourage contractor performance. • (S/T/PE) Systems Engineering, Prototyping, and Test. Use an end-to-end approach to reduce risk through systems engineering, prototyping, incremental delivery, and recurring testing. Build smaller satellites and smaller ground systems and minimize recurring engineering. • (S/T/PE) Performance and Risk Monitoring. Relentlessly manage program baselines. Leverage modern tools and frameworks for program monitoring (Technical Performance Measures, Objectives and Key Results, Confluence, Jira, etc.). Conduct regular program reviews to assess technical progress and performance.
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Defense ARJ, Summer 2025, Vol. 32 No. 2: 132—193
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