COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.–The Air Force is months away from standing up its new three-star deputy chief of staff for space (A-11) position, according to the service’s top space officer.
Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) chief Gen. John Raymond said April 6 this new position does not have to wait for Air Force secretary nominee Heather Wilson to take over as the position was approved by Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein and acting Air Force Secretary Lisa Disbrow. The Air Force said April 4 in a statement this new position will serve as the Air Force’s headquarters space advocate, which will increase decision making speed and ensure freedom from attack and freedom to maneuver.
This new position is one of a number of major organization and management changes the Air Force is making to its space enterprise. The service is also reforming the space acquisition programs approval process through the implementation of the new acquisition milestone decision authority provisions in the fiscal year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act. This will streamline the decision making and remove months of time from the approval process, according to the Air Force.
The service will take full advantage of the authorities at its disposal, and consider alternative acquisition approaches. For example, the Air Force will expand the use of the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) organization to rapidly field systems, as well as procure existing commercial capabilities.
Raymond also said he directed Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center chief Gen. Samuel Greaves to use ORS authorities more broadly than it has in the past. Raymond gave three examples: either capitalizing work that has been done by others, capitalizing on authorities others have had or capitalizing and using the authorities that it has in different ways.
Raymond would also like to see more partnering with the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) where it makes sense. RCO, he said, has already performed some work on battle management command and control (BMC2) capabilities and he’d like to leverage their work to spur advancements in that field. 14th Air Force (Air Force Strategic) Commander Lt. Gen. David Buck said April 6 BMC2 was one of his critical priorities as the service needs the ability to command and control forces in increasingly contested environments.
The RCO expedites development and fielding of select Pentagon combat support and weapon systems by leveraging defense-wide technology development efforts and existing operational capabilities, according to the Air Force. One program to come out of the RCO is the Air Force’s new B-21 bomber.
Raymond and Buck’s remarks came at the 33rd Space Symposium.