Key Takeaways:
- Outdated Buying Practices: The government’s buying practices haven’t kept pace with technological advances in the commercial space industry. As highlighted by Mandy Vaughn, many traditional procurement models are not aligned with the innovation seen in the commercial sector, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities.
- Bridging the Innovation Gap: There’s a significant gap between government needs and the technological capabilities that commercial companies offer. Vaughn discussed how initiatives like SpaceWerx aim to integrate commercial innovations into larger defense missions, but current buying practices still create a mismatch that hinders full collaboration.
- Trust and Flexibility in Contracts: General Pawlikowski emphasized the need for more flexibility in contracts and better communication between the government and commercial providers. A lack of trust and rigid contract terms limit the government’s ability to fully leverage commercial assets, such as satellite communications.
- Public-Private Partnership: The panel stressed the importance of a true public-private partnership, where the commercial space industry isn’t just seen as a vendor but as an integral partner. Vaughn and Pawlikowski highlighted the benefits of working more collaboratively to integrate commercial capabilities into national security missions, ensuring a hybrid, resilient space architecture
CSIS | Commercial Space for National Security: Integration and Institutional Change
Date: 18 September 2024
Speakers:
- General (Ret.) Ellen M. Pawlikowski, U.S. Air Force
- Ms. Mandy F. Vaughn, CEO and Founder, GXO, Inc
Moderator: Kari A. Bingen, director of the Aerospace Security Project and senior fellow with the International Security Program
On Outdated Buying Practices:
Mandy Vaughn
- “So basically, when we unpacked a lot of some of these examples, it came out that some of these old buying practices really are just because that’s how the RFP was previously written, or that’s how the money flows. That’s the line item, the buying practices have not kept up with the technology developments.”
- “So there’s just kind of, we call it our ‘scope creep,’ part of the study where we really unpacked why the government felt like they needed to control more and more of the architecture to be able to have that trust in the data. So, it was really kind of an interesting interpretation of what is inherently governmental in a space system, as a space system is providing a capability to a joint force or a warfighter somewhere else. So, we saw through the budgeting and the acquisition processes, an inherent need to need to control the data flows from end to end, or control all of assets that were part of the decision making process under their own guise.”
- “I think another, like near term, smaller action we propose to is the STRATFI concept is really interesting in terms of, you bring folks small funding program, executive office funding, and then it’s matched by private funds. It’s a powerful example to send a good demand signal about a company’s tech as well as you’re then leveraging. You’re basically helping vector private money into a program or a technology that a PEO game for, right? So it’s a cool feedback mechanism.”
Gen Ellen Pawlikowski
- “One of the things that the SDA shared with us is one of their challenges is when they go into the Pentagon to get approval for their program, the Pentagon doesn’t know how to do a cost estimate that isn’t a life cycle cost estimate for something like that. ‘How much this is going to cost?’ ‘Well, it’s going to be this much every year.’ And so, it’s not why the framework is so important, because it’s not just one piece that has to be addressed, not just requirements. It’s not just the contracting, it’s the cost estimating, it’s the budgeting. All of this has to incorporate commercial into their processes and their practices if we’re going to truly get the integration that we want.”
- “And I think the biggest risk we can end up with if we keep going the way we’re going, is we spend multi billion dollars on these very bespoke, sophisticated systems, but have limited capability. You know, quality is a quality all in itself. And I think that’s the biggest thing that commercial provides for us. That is really important as we look to the future, is being able to have a sufficient quantity of space capabilities in addition to the quality that we have always treasured.”
On Bridging the Innovation Gap:
Mandy Vaughn
- “People talk about the value of commercial and leveraging the speed of the industry. How fast can they integrate new technologies? How fast can they refresh things? So, we know there’s development practices happening in these companies and in this ecosystem that we need to take advantage of in these more classic mission areas, SATCOM, PNT, missile warning, missile tracking and what have you. So, it’s, how do we help bridge this chasm? Okay, we talk about wanting to emulate these behaviors and leverage this quick cycle, but we haven’t changed the way in which we go acquire the products to do that.”
- “There’s a lot of different ways for all, a whole range of different companies with different capabilities to play in that space and just to bring in innovation into those programs. And I think it does go back into it helps vector the private investment that wants to come into this sector. So, by having that kind of construct, you can make it a lot more clear in terms of these are the technology areas where private investment can further a cause.”
- “Basically, we need to rethink, break the mold of rethinking from these classic mission areas until it’s just a truly integrated, connected space. And how can we be much more imaginative, and what those architectures could truly be from the beginning? How can we use what’s actually out there, and leverage that to the hilt?”
Gen Ellen Pawlikowski
- “In addition to that, there is a concern about whether the commercial market will continue to be there as things evolve, if I make an integral part of my architecture, commercial SATCOM, and decision is made to get out of that business because of other opportunities the Department doesn’t want to be left without anything.”
- “The 10 CAP program is some funding that’s allocated that allows the combat commanders to try use our national space assets in ways that are new and innovative to help them. So, we called it the Commercial Capabilities Program, where there’s funding provided that the combat commanders can use that as an opportunity to try to work commercial into their operation. And that would be a way to prime the pump a little bit to get them involved gains and the exercises and everything.”
- “So, if [a PEO] takes 2% off and explores this, the whole infrastructure will scream a little bit to include the prime who’s like, ‘Wait a minute, that funding was for my contract.’ But if it’s established up front that this is what we’re going to do, then, then the PEO is empowered to do that. Now it would have to be carved out of that TOA, and so there might be a little bit less that gets accomplished on the prime contract for those years, but maybe a little less needs to get done if the commercial matures, right? So, it gives the Program Executive Officer the opportunity to explore what commercial can do.”
On Trust and Flexibility in Contracts:
Mandy Vaughn
- “And then another big part of this is information flow. So, industry is super concerned just, ‘Hey, tell me what I should worry about.’ And in some cases, if there’s limitations or areas where they may be vulnerable, they’d like to know that, because it makes good business case for them to shore that up. So, we talked to many companies. We were like, ‘Hey, we don’t need to know, you know, all spooky secret stuff, but if it makes good business case for us to make our systems more inherently resilient, we’ll do that.’ So there’s a lack of information flow.”
- “I always call it being architected out from the beginning. The government makes these assumptions on what can the commercial providers bring to the table so they get limited into what can be addressable to them, because it’s not a two way dialog from the very beginning well and on trust and risk.”
Gen Ellen Pawlikowski
- “So that combination of what they framed as the transactional approach, the way we do business, from a business perspective, combined with us making—in the industry view—uninformed decisions about what they can really provide, because we don’t share everything with them. So, it really boils down to this issue of trust and the risk associated with trusting each other.”
On Public-Private Partnership:
Gen Ellen Pawlikowski
- “If you’re going to use commercial SATCOM in combat operations, commercial capability of any kind in combat operations, we train the way we fight. So, we need to have integration of commercial capabilities in our exercises, and that informs both sides as to what the expectation is before you’re in the middle of a crisis, which is what happened in Ukraine. And then from the buyer perspective, US acquisition folks, it then enforces as to what are the things that need to be in the contract.”
- “Just recently, the Air Force Research Lab announced that they awarded contracts for a hybrid terminal. The hybrid in that is that these terminals will be able to use both government and commercial SATCOM, and there’s an opportunity, because now I don’t have to worry about what kind of comm my satellite is going to have. And that’s that sends a great signal to the commercial industry that says, ‘Okay, I have an opportunity now to compete for that comm business.’”
- “One of the strongest recommendations that came out of the study was that we needed to improve the way we communicate to the commercial vendors. What are the risks that we can help with, and then we can advocate for them, for the war insurance, and part of that is to take what we can do in terms of hardening measures, warning measures that we are aware of, these are technical things that we can advise them that they might want to incorporate into their systems in order to provide more robust measures. So, I think those are two things that we absolutely have to do in order to recognize the fact that space is no longer this area where you don’t have to worry about risks.”