Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Astronautics --- Government purchasing --- Defense contracts

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The Space Enterprise Vision (SEV), developed jointly by Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) and the National Reconnaissance Office in 2015, describes an integrated approach to building a force across all space mission areas, coupling the delivery of space capabilities with the ability to defend space capabilities. Achieving this vision requires reducing acquisition time lines and improving integration of the space enterprise. Given that the SEV requires a departure from the way space systems are currently acquired, AFSPC headquarters and Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) asked RAND Project AIR FORCE (PAF) to assess key barriers to realizing the SEV and recommend ways to overcome those barriers to help achieve the SEV goals. The research team examined a range of potential approaches to support the goals of the SEV, based on a literature review and semistructured interviews with acquisition subject matter experts and sponsor guidance. PAF identified several promising alternative acquisition approaches that merit in-depth examination in this project: modular open system architectures (MOSA), agile acquisition, rapid prototyping. These concepts are not new, but implementing them in a Department of Defense (DoD) setting is challenging for a variety of reasons. Therefore, the examination focuses on likely challenges to implementation and recommendations to overcome them to improve the likelihood of success should these acquisition approaches have a role in the SEV. Each of these acquisition approaches can be implemented independently, but there are instances in which they may be used synergistically, as illustrated in the body of the report.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The expanding global commercial space industry offers new opportunities — such as technological advances in small satellites, lower launch costs, and innovative satellite applications — that could help the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) meet its mission requirements more efficiently and give it access to a broader innovation pool. The Department of the Air Force (DAF), particularly the U.S. Space Force (USSF), is increasing its partnership activities with the commercial space industry to take advantage of these opportunities. As the DAF makes investment decisions to leverage commercial space capabilities, it needs a better understanding of opportunities, risks, and challenges it might encounter. To help the DAF evaluate these potential benefits and risks, RAND researchers examined two space-related markets that together represent the widest variation in market and firm maturity: the commercial space-based positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) market (an emerging market) and the commercial satellite communications (SATCOM) market (an established market). This variation between the two markets is useful for identifying distinct and cross-cutting themes that could be generalized to other commercial space markets not analyzed in this research. In this report, the researchers describe their analysis and provide findings and recommendations for the DAF.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The Department of Defense is creating the Space Force as an independent service within the Department of the Air Force to ensure access to, and freedom to operate in, space and to provide vital capabilities to joint and coalition forces in peacetime and across the spectrum of conflict. It has been 72 years since the United States last created a new military service, the Air Force. The other military services date back to the first years of the American nation. Because the Department of Defense does not often create military services, this is an opportune time to consider the implications of creating an independent Space Force. RAND developed an analytic approach to determine which units to bring into the Space Force. The authors asked how a transfer might affect any of the following four organizational attributes: effectiveness, efficiency, independence, and sense of identity. Then, the authors assessed a set of career fields to consider whether they would be sustainable in the Space Force. These analyses are complemented with an examination of other organizations that the Department of Defense has created to gain insights into potential challenges that the Space Force might face as it stands up and grows into its role.

Space control (Military science) --- Military planning --- United States. --- Organization.