{"id":39896,"date":"2018-10-29T14:24:47","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T14:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/10\/29\/the-biggest-challenge-to-the-pentagons-space-plan-hint-its-not-the-technology\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:21:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:21:03","slug":"the-biggest-challenge-to-the-pentagons-space-plan-hint-its-not-the-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/space\/2018\/10\/29\/the-biggest-challenge-to-the-pentagons-space-plan-hint-its-not-the-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"The biggest challenge to the Pentagon\u2019s space plan? Hint: \u2018It\u2019s not the technology\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 If the Pentagon is serious about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/space\/2018\/10\/23\/pentagon-presents-recommendations-on-space-force-to-trump\/\" target=_blank>changing how it tackles space<\/a>, the department must clamp down on old ways of thinking and dump duplicative systems, the department\u2019s No. 2 official said Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe can\u2019t let any new work be done the old way,\u201d Patrick Shanahan said during an event hosted by the Military Reporters &amp; Editors Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The road toward standing up a Space Force, sought by President Donald Trump as a new branch of the military, has been winding. In September, an Air Force memo that leaked to the press cited a $13 billion price tag and calling for the National Reconnaissance Office, currently part of the intelligence community, to be integrated under the Space Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/digital-show-dailies\/air-force-association\/2018\/09\/17\/air-force-secretary-space-force-will-come-with-13b-in-added-costs\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/div_nrol47_l3.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Air Force secretary: Space Force will cost $13B in new expenses<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The price for a Space Force? It&#039;s going up.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shanahan, meanwhile, has also been working on a design for the potential service, emphasizing the need to stand up the Space Development Agency, which would serve as the acquisition lead on all space issues \u2014 and which largely keeps the intelligence community separate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat I think happens when the problem is so big is everybody tries to solve \u2014 you know, boil the ocean, and it takes too much time. So I\u2019m going to move faster. We need to stand it up,\u201d Shanahan said of the Space Development Agency. \u201cWe have to start tonight. I\u2019m more interested in starting tonight than I am in capturing everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The deputy said he was \u201c110 percent aligned\u201d with Sue Gordon, the deputy director of national intelligence, adding: \u201cThere is no land grab with the intelligence organizations.\u201d But he didn\u2019t deny that an roll-up with the intelligence community is on the table, indicating instead that such discussions are ongoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWill it make sense to combine or, you know, merge missions, mission areas? I can\u2019t tell you what that looks like,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have oversight committees and, you know, Congress always gets a vote. What we want to do is present them options over time. But right now, when we\u2019re spending real, hard dollars on capabilities, it\u2019s \u2014 we are 100 percent aligned on how to get there so we can get the most out of those dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/digital-show-dailies\/air-force-association\/2018\/09\/19\/shanahan-downplays-disagreements-over-space-force-structure\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-876762790.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Shanahan downplays disagreements over Space Force structure<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan spoke Wednesday at the annual Air Force Association conference outside of Washington.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Speaking of dollars &#8230;<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When asked about the $13 billion figure put out by the Air Force, Shanahan said that \u201cnext week, we\u2019re going to start to see\u201d the initial Office of the Secretary of Defense\u2019s cost estimates. \u201cI would just, kind of, put that [Air Force] number aside,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shanahan described the Space Development Agency as the \u201cforcing function\u201d that will make sure the services are investing smartly, rather than going down their own paths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMissile Defense Agency, the Army with its Army Futures Command, the Air Force with things like Joint STARS, are all going to use space,\u201d he said. \u201cSo what are those areas that, if you drew a Venn diagram, are common?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is the biggest challenge. It\u2019s not the technology. It\u2019s how do you get the Department of Defense aligned,\u201d he added. \u201cHow do we get more free riders? So if the Army is first in order to develop a component of our space architecture, how do we get everybody to hold hands and say: \u2018The Air Force is going to adopt the same thing?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAdoption doesn\u2019t mean: \u2018Well, it\u2019ll be [similar].\u2019 It\u2019s 100 percent. The notion of the Space Development Agency is that\u2019s where all the players go &#8230; you don\u2019t have pieces of paper saying, \u2018Oh, we\u2019re going to have the same standard,\u2019 and immediately everybody diverges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pushing to commonality will drive down costs, Shanahan argued, but he acknowledged that if he makes that argument to the services impacted, \u201cthey\u2019ll tell me I\u2019m wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBut I\u2019ve \u2014 you know, my experience in doing these things is people don\u2019t believe it on the front end, but actually when you solve the same problem once, then people learn more quickly and then your cost estimating gets better and the resourcing gets better,\u201d he said. \u201cBut that\u2019s the \u2014 I have to prove it to people right now; [that\u2019s] part of the exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/author\/valerie-insinna\/\" target=_blank><i>Valerie Insinna<\/i><\/a><i> contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The planning for the Space Force continues &#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":65709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":23,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"4":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"}}},"categories":[160,163,36,19,23],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3378],"class_list":["post-39896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-military-space-report","category-newsletters","category-pentagon","category-space"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"FWU5AV75YRHI5JLZCV5CZNEPP4","arc_canonical_url":"\/space\/2018\/10\/29\/the-biggest-challenge-to-the-pentagons-space-plan-hint-its-not-the-technology\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The biggest challenge to the Pentagon\u2019s space plan? 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