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13 March 2019 Pentagon officially stands up Space Development Agency, names first director By Aaron Mehta and Valerie Insinna Breaking Defense |
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WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has formally stood up the Space Development Agency, and named its new director, according to a memo obtained by Defense News. The memo, signed out by acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan March 12, immediately stood up the SDA as a new office under the direction of Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin. The office will be directed by Fred Kennedy, the current director of the Tactical Technology Office, which falls under the purview of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Per his bio, Kennedy, a retired Air Force colonel, served as senior policy adviser for national security space and aviation in the National Security and International Affairs division of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Obama administration. “The SDA will define and monitor the Department’s future threat-driven space architecture and will accelerate the development and fielding of new military space capabilities necessary to ensure out technological and military advantage in space for national defense,” Shanahan wrote in the memo. “The SDA will unify and integrate efforts across the Department to define, develop and field the novel and innovative solutions necessary to outpace advancing threats.” Per the document, the SDA will be responsible for guiding programmatic policy developments for next-generation military space capabilities that reside within the Defense Department. In essence, it will serve as the unifying office for the department on space acquisition. The director will have special hiring authorities for civilian employees to bring in highly qualified experts and noncompetitive short-term hires for up to 18 months. Shanahan and Griffin have previously talked about the SDA as the core of what the Pentagon will do in the space domain. In October, Shanahan described it as “where all the players go” if they want to do something with space assets, later telling Defense News that he needs someone in that job focused on how to architect common standards across the department. “This is that integrated environment that we have to protect, and the best way to be able to provision for the future is to develop a foundation that’s rooted in a very well-defined architecture and standards,” said Shanahan, then the deputy secretary of defense. “And the standards aren’t just simply for interfaces, these are design standards, you’re manufacturing standards, these are test standards — so it’s a suite of those things.” However, the idea has been criticized by outgoing Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, who in February said there should be public conversations on whether the organization was necessary. "I think there’s still concern — I know I have some concerns — about what is the mission of this entity, why do we think it would be better than what we currently do and what exactly will it be focused on conceptually,” Wilson said last month at the Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium.
While the SDA is independent
for now, the plan is to
transfer it to a stand-alone
Space Force, something
Shanahan said remains the
long-term plan, writing:
“Coordination of
requirements and transition
decisions will occur through
the normal processes once
SDA transfers to the U.S.
Space Force. Until that
time, the Department will
evaluate additional
consolidation of space
development organization and
management.” |
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