{"id":23359,"date":"2019-08-01T21:24:36","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T21:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2019\/08\/01\/is-the-space-development-agency-here-to-stay\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:16:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:16:20","slug":"is-the-space-development-agency-here-to-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/space\/2019\/08\/01\/is-the-space-development-agency-here-to-stay\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Space Development Agency here to stay?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The nascent Space Development Agency may not be long for this world, if experts are to be believed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a July 31 event at the Brookings Institute, panelists expressed doubt over the agency\u2019s effectiveness, and perhaps more importantly, its longevity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf the three major space organizational reforms that this administration proposed\u2015Space Force, Space Command and Space Development Agency\u2015the Space Development Agency was actually the first to stand up and to get a leader. I think it\u2019s probably the first one to go away, quite frankly,\u201d said Todd Harrison, director of defense budget analysis for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based thinktank. \u201cI think creating a Space Development Agency off on the side just further fragments things and misaligns us,\u201d said Harrison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Pentagon established the Space Development Agency in March, leaders charged the SDA with rapidly developing capabilities for the military in space. The agency was pitched as a way to consolidate space acquisitions, but the fact that multiple entities outside of the SDA\u2015from the National Reconnaissance Office to the Space and Missile Systems Center\u2015are still in charge of some space acquisitions left observers confused. If the point of the SDA was consolidation, why were did so many Department of Defense entities still have a hand in space acquisitions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Madelyn Creedon, former principal deputy administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, the existence of the SDA only serves to create more confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKudos to Mike Griffin, [the Pentagon\u2019s under secretary of defense for research and engineering] because I think he was trying to come up with a more creative way to solve a problem,” she said. \u201cUnfortunately, I don\u2019t think it was the right answer because it creates yet another entity that\u2019s trying to approve space acquisitions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Creedon recommended a system where a single entity would be in charge of all military space acquisitions. Creedon also expressed frustration that the NRO, the agency in charge of the nation\u2019s spy satellites, did not cede its acquisitions authority to the SDA, a sentiment her fellow panelists broadly agreed with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBringing an acquisition entity into a very divided community, where NRO is going to maintain its own acquisition capacity, has big problems, right? When you talk about turf war and acquisition together, it makes a bigger problem. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to go away easily just by developing an SDA,\u201d said Mallory Stewart, a former deputy assistant secretary at the State Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another question Harrison raised: Why isn\u2019t the SDA simply part of Space Force?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re creating a whole new branch of the military to try to integrate all of our space capabilities. Why is this new organization not being put under [the Space Force]?\u201d he asked. \u201cThat is a big question. So I have my doubts about it continuing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But according to Mike Griffin, the Pentagon\u2019s under secretary of defense for research and engineering, the SDA was never supposed to be \u201cthe owner and arbiter of all things space for the national security community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Griffin and other SDA leaders were peppered with questions about how the SDA differentiates itself from other space-related organizations within the Department of Defense during the agency\u2019s initial industry day July 23. Even four months after the agency was established, confusion swirled over the agency\u2019s role and relationship to entities, such as the Missile Defense Agency, the Space and Missile Systems Center and Air Force Space Command.<\/p>\n\n\n\t