The Air Force has created a space architecture division tasked with performing a “top-down” look at the future of the space architecture and how individual programs fit within it, according to a key service official.

Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force for Space and Director of the Principal Defense Department Space Advisors Staff Winston Beauchamp told sister publication Defense Daily the week of March 14 the division reports to Air Force Brig. Gen. Nina Armagno, who is director of strategic plans, programs, requirements and analysis, headquarters Air Force Space Command (AFSPC). Beauchamp said while the division won’t focus exclusively on the upcoming wideband analysis of alternatives (AoA), the analysis is “certainly” a part.

Beauchamp “imagines” the space architecture division will both provide information to the AoA and receive information from the analysis. While he deferred comment to AFSPC on how long the division would be active, Beauchamp said a division is typically stood up for a short time if it is for something that needs to be done for only a limited window. That’s not the case, Beauchamp said, for the “huge question” of the future of the space architecture.

Air Force spokesman Andy Roake said the space architecture group is more accurately defined as a “Tiger Team,” a group of experts temporarily brought together by a designated authority for a specific mission, usually to solve a specific problem or issue. Roake said AFSPC chief Gen. John Hyten created a Tiger Team to define the future strategic missile warning and satellite communications (SATCOM) architecture based on the Space Enterprise Vision, which the Air Force plans to roll out at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo., the week of April 11.