WASHINGTON — A top official at the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit urged space industry executives not to underestimate the U.S. Space Force’s commitment to adopting commercial products and services, despite some lingering challenges.
“The Space Force may be the new kid on the block but they’re leading the charge when it comes to embracing commercial innovation,” said Steven “Bucky” Butow, director of the space portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit, or DIU.
DIU is a Pentagon agency that works with the private sector. Its status was elevated last year in order to help the Pentagon gain more rapid access to commercial companies with promising technologies. The agency previously reported to the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, but now reports directly to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Speaking Feb. 7 at the SmallSat Symposium in Mountain View, California, Butow said the Space Force is opening doors and giving companies a chance to show what they can do. But he cautioned that the road to successful commercial integration within the Space Force won’t be smooth.
Traditional acquisition processes and complex Pentagon regulations still create hurdles for non-traditional procurements, he said. Additionally, military budgets often prioritize established “programs of record,” making it difficult to allocate funds to new initiatives.
The industry needs to be realistic about the challenges, said Butow, but insisted that the Space Force is serious about change.
Satellite imagery procurement
One initiative that appears to be gaining momentum relates to the procurement of satellite imagery from commercial companies, Butow said.
“We’ve been fighting really hard for the Space Force to be an executive agent to be able to go out and procure commercial remote sensing information that would be used by all the military services,” he said.
Military units typically don’t buy…
Read the full article here