Saltzman: Aquisition Reform is a “Generational Opportunity”

Changing the way the government acquires national security space systems — indeed, military systems writ large — to be faster and more cost effective has been a goal of countless Congresses and Administrations. The Trump Administration is trying anew and the head of the U.S. Space Force is convinced this time is different.  Gen. B. Chance Saltzman calls it a “national security imperative and a generational opportunity.”

Saltzman is Chief of Space Operations for the U.S. Space Force, the newest military service. Created by the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), President Trump signed it into law on December 20, 2019 during his first term. Saltzman has 34 years experience in the Air Force and Space Force as a missile launch officer, satellite operator for the National Reconnaissance Office, and chief of Combat Plans and Combat Operations for the Joint Space Operations Center.  He assumed command of the Space Force in November 2022.

Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies today, Saltzman said that what’s currently being put forward by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink is a “transformation” of military acquisition. The current system isn’t broken so much as it was “designed for a different era” and “simply not suited to allow us to compete and win” in today’s dynamic environment.

Past attempts at reform failed because they tried “to fix process with more process” and looked only at the acquisition of capabilities “not the full life-cycle from requirements through delivery and sustainment.” That’s what needs to change even though it means taking “more process risk to achieve more mission success.”  Setbacks can be expected, but will be worth it in the long run.

Envisioning a future 10 years from now when acquisition is working effectively, Saltzman laid out what it will take for the Space Force and its Guardians to get there.

First, a “savvy” group of Guardians who are acquisition experts is needed with the requisite depth of experience and expertise. That means not cycling jobs too quickly, providing deeper training, expanding deployment to industry, and working in partnership with the Warfighter Acquisition University that will evolve from the existing Defense Acquisition University. Next is simplifying systems requirements and allowing acquisition professionals and contractors to make trades to accelerate getting systems to the warfighter faster.  Communicating the warfighting architecture that’s needed now and in the future to all of the Space Force’s stakeholders through the upcoming “Objective Force” framework, and focusing on “rapid, agile and iterative procurement” are other key steps.

“The goal is not to chase perfection in requirements or performance, but rather to deliver some capability, incrementally improving on what we have. It can be ready quickly and then we improve on that continually and use it operationally. A capability that is good enough and ready now will always be better than a perfect solution that arrives too late for the fight or one that never arrives at all. We’re moving away from a fixed all-or-nothing ops acceptance milestone in favor of smaller, more frequent delivery increments that will bring that minimum capability to bear for the warfighter sooner and the upgrades will be informed by real world operational lessons learned.”

Saltzman used the analogy of smartphones. He’s confident the requirements developed for the first models never envisioned all the capabilities they have today, but the companies didn’t wait. “They just said this is better than a flip phone” and incrementally they got better over time.

That’s the kind of new mindset required for defense acquisition:  “We can’t wait for near perfection in our systems before putting them into operation,” spend too much time refining requirements, or add “process where it doesn’t add value.”

The critical factor — “first among equals” — is speed.  Otherwise, by the time new systems are fielded, the threat has changed and it doesn’t matter how capable a system is if it’s “capable for the wrong thing.”

Saltzman acknowledged it won’t be easy. “We’re going to be unanchored, unmoored for a little bit,” but this “has to be a radical shift, fundamental change.”

The Space Force just released “Vector 2025” to help Guardians understand the broader transformation the service is making “into a warfighting service,” building on several doctrinal documents issued by Saltzman including Space Force Doctrine Document-1, Space Warfighting: A Framework for Planners, Commercial Space Strategy, and International Partnership Strategy.

Next will be the “Objective Force” framework he cited, which will lay out what the service needs over the next 15 years.  It will “formally document the what, where, when, how many of the space capabilities, personnel and resources we need to achieve mission success by clearly signalling to all our stakeholders what the architecture looks like” and creating a “stable demand signal for all to follow.”

It’ll be a very detailed, living document produced every five years by a new field command that once was to be called Space Futures Command. The first iteration, 2025-2040, should be done by the end of this year, though it may not be published until early 2026. The 2030 edition will look to 2045 and so forth to reflect changing circumstances and what is needed as the years progress.