Ways Innovative Companies May Seek U.S. Space Force Opportunities

At the recent AFCEA NOVA Space Force IT Day, General David Thompson, Vice Chief Space Operations, U.S. Space Force gave a keynote where he discussed USSF priorities, efforts and plans, including ways that companies – especially small and innovation-centric companies – can engage with the young military service, which reached its two-year milestone in December.

Thompson highlighted the five USSF priorities set out last year by Chief of Space Operations, Gen. Jay Raymond: create a lean and agile service; develop joint warfighters; develop new operational capabilities at relevant speed; expand cooperation and partnerships; and create a digital service to drive innovation.

Underscored and interwoven throughout his comments was the theme of the strong threads of information technology (IT) and digital/cyber capabilities throughout space operations. Those threads underpin their efforts to build a modern digital service to meet current and future challenges and integrate with the joint force. To that end, Thompson emphasized how capabilities going forward are to be built upon a digital engineering environment.

To expand cooperation and partnerships with industry and other sectors Thompson emphasized how SF is working to leverage the power of the traditional defense industry, the IT sector and the commercial space sector. This is central to their Vision for a Digital Service.

Industry Engagement Mechanisms

When asked about Space Force plans for leveraging industry innovation and what opportunities will companies have to demonstrate capabilities, etc. Thompson highlighted several Space Force and larger Department of Defense (DoD) efforts by which innovative companies may engage and win funding.

SpaceWerx is the Space Force’s venture capital unit, parallel to the Air Force’s AFWERX at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Thompson also mentions the broader Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC), which helps firms learn how to do business with the DoD.

Thompson also highlighted the approach of the new Space Warfighting Analysis Center. Under their Force Design process, the SF will provide interested companies with their requirements and model data for industry to take away and develop a vision/idea for what a system should look like to meet that need. In turn, the SF is looking for industry to come back with their own model and data and proposed or prototype solution ideas for the SF to compare quantitatively to quantitatively with its internal models. Thompson said that this is the model they are looking at for future acquisitions.

Cyberspace Security

Foundational to current and future efforts is the priority of the security of U.S. space systems – both securing current space systems as well as building in security and resilience into new systems. Thompson noted an ongoing shift in mindset that recognizes and seeks to address the threats to space systems and threats from space that were not present when much of the world’s space infrastructure was launched over the preceding decades.