Yool Kim

Frank Camm

Guy Weichenberg

Thomas C. Whitmore

The Space Enterprise Vision (SEV), developed jointly by Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) and the National Reconnaissance Office in 2015, describes an integrated approach to building a force across all space mission areas, coupling the delivery of space capabilities with the ability to defend space capabilities. Achieving this vision requires reducing acquisition time lines and improving integration of the space enterprise. Given that the SEV requires a departure from the way space systems are currently acquired, AFSPC headquarters and Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) asked RAND Project AIR FORCE (PAF) to assess key barriers to realizing the SEV and recommend ways to overcome those barriers to help achieve the SEV goals. The research team examined a range of potential approaches to support the goals of the SEV, based on a literature review and semistructured interviews with acquisition subject matter experts and sponsor guidance. PAF identified several promising alternative acquisition approaches that merit in-depth examination in this project: modular open system architectures (MOSA), agile acquisition, rapid prototyping. These concepts are not new, but implementing them in a Department of Defense (DoD) setting is challenging for a variety of reasons. Therefore, the examination focuses on likely challenges to implementation and recommendations to overcome them to improve the likelihood of success should these acquisition approaches have a role in the SEV. Each of these acquisition approaches can be implemented independently, but there are instances in which they may be used synergistically, as illustrated in the body of the report.

Improving Acquisition to Support the Space Enterprise Vision

Michael Spirtas

Forrest E. Morgan

Shirley M. Ross

Debra Knopman

Sebastian Joon Bae

M. Scott Bond

John S. Crown

Elaine Simmons

As the United States creates the Space Force as a service within the Department of the Air Force, RAND assessed which units to bring into the Space Force, analyzed career field sustainability, and drew lessons from other defense organizations. The report focuses on implications for effectiveness, efficiency, independence, and sense of identity for the new service.

Creating a Military Service for Space

A Separate Space

The Department of Defense is creating the Space Force as an independent service within the Department of the Air Force to ensure access to, and freedom to operate in, space and to provide vital capabilities to joint and coalition forces in peacetime and across the spectrum of conflict. It has been 72 years since the United States last created a new military service, the Air Force. The other military services date back to the first years of the American nation. Because the Department of Defense does not often create military services, this is an opportune time to consider the implications of creating an independent Space Force. RAND developed an analytic approach to determine which units to bring into the Space Force. The authors asked how a transfer might affect any of the following four organizational attributes: effectiveness, efficiency, independence, and sense of identity. Then, the authors assessed a set of career fields to consider whether they would be sustainable in the Space Force. These analyses are complemented with an examination of other organizations that the Department of Defense has created to gain insights into potential challenges that the Space Force might face as it stands up and grows into its role.

Separate Space

Frank Camm

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