(ORDO NEWS) — Perhaps one of the most closed American organizations among those associated with space exploration, for the first time shared with the public details about its activities, plans and features of work.
The department is called the Space Rapid Capabilities Office ( SRCO – roughly translated as “Space Operational Capabilities Office”).
In the structure of the United States Space Force (USSF), this is the third division specializing in the organization of procurement and contracts.
The other two are Space Development Agency and Space Systems Command, their tasks are more ambitious.
The main difference between SRCO and them is greater freedom of action, fewer approvals and a focus on solving urgent problems that do not tolerate protracted bureaucratic red tape.
Until 2021, almost nothing was known about this department, except for the very fact of its existence. Although SRCO appeared five years ago.
Most of the department’s activities are classified, but its leader, Kelly Hammett, is determined to change that.
He gave an interview to the SpaceNews portal , the reason for which was the launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy carrier in the interests of the US Space Forces (USSF-67 mission).
Naturally, no one made the launch itself secret; for the American cosmonautics, this has long been nonsense.
But what was hidden under the rocket fairing was described in a streamlined way: the Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM 2 (CBAS-2) communication satellite and the Long Duration Propulsive ESPA (LDPE 2) maneuvering module (upper stage) with five “secondary” payloads on it.
Hammett said three of the five miniature payloads just the ones that split off rather than stay on LDPE2 are satellites created by his department.
These are not experimental, but finished products intended for use by defense departments. Two of them are equipped with sets of sensors to track the situation in near-Earth space.
Another is equipment for highly secure satellite communications. The USSF will use them and, based on experience with them, will extrapolate the results to other systems at their disposal.
The entire cycle of development and launch of the devices took less than three years, which can be called a record by industry standards.
It is in this efficiency in responding to the challenges of national security and the country’s defense capability that the whole point of SRCO’s work lies.
The bureaucracy habitual to any “purchasing” state structures does not allow to act quickly – the coordination of the terms of reference and the budget can take years.
The Air Force faced a similar problem at one time and solved it through the creation of the Rapid Capabilities Office in 2003.
The name is identical, it is clear where the Space Forces got their name from for the same department.
On account of the “air” RCO – at least the program of the strategic stealth bomber Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider and the unmanned spaceplane Boeing X-37.
As well as many other lesser known or completely secret projects. A key feature of SRCO that distinguishes it from other supply offices is significant autonomy at all levels.
The US Congress and the Department of Defense have directly delegated to the department the right to manage the budget as they see fit.
With minimal approvals, the department can conclude contracts worth up to a billion dollars.
Moreover, it is possible to reallocate funds between projects within the same financial year, which is almost unthinkable for “regular” procurement offices.
For this, they need the approval of all responsible structures, each with its own superiors, or even directly from Congress, if we are talking about the most expensive programs.
Such freedom comes with great responsibility, as Hammett notes. Money must be distributed as carefully as possible: if finances are wasted, heads will roll.
And no one else will allow such liberties to any branch of the Armed Forces.
In addition, “classic” suppliers are putting pressure. But not what you might think: SRCO does not compete with anyone and, on the contrary, becomes a lifesaver for purchasing departments.
Hammett’s office is literally being told that since it can work faster and more efficiently, it needs to work even faster and more efficiently – requests are coming in in such numbers that it’s hard to keep up.
Now 200 people serve under him, of which 80 are officers and officials, but “there are not enough tables for all projects.”
Against the backdrop of a rapidly growing industry, the Space Force constantly faces new challenges that require the fastest possible response. With what they go to SRCO.
Hammett and his colleagues are trying to compensate for the lack of free hands by attracting more private contractors, recruiting specialists from the industry and expanding funding.
For the first two items on the list, agency representatives regularly attend conferences and other industry events. There they look for partners, follow the newcomers and novelties in astronautics.
It is not uncommon for SRCO employees themselves to speak at private or simply non-public meetings, where they describe their tasks, opportunities, and problems.
Nevertheless, due to the high secrecy of the projects on which the department is working, it is difficult to find private contractors.
The decision to reveal details about the USSF-67 secret satellites commissioned by SRCO is part of a broader campaign to declassify the department’s activities.
This is necessary to make the division more visible to politicians (who can give money) and representatives of the aerospace industry (potential contractors).
In other words, to make it easier to work, Hammett needs to reduce the “degree of mystery.”
In addition to details on the USSF-67 mission , the SRCO director spoke about two other ongoing projects in his office:
– SCAR , Satellite Communications Augmentation Resource , is a program to replace aging analog terrestrial infrastructure satellite dishes with more powerful and versatile active phased array antennas.
The reason for the work was the urgent request of the Space Force to expand the capabilities of existing communication systems with satellites and control them.
More and more devices are being withdrawn, the available capacities simply cannot cope. BlueHalo has been awarded an eight – year, $1.4 billion contract for this task.
– GC3 , Ground Command, Control and Communications, is a program to develop a unified universal ground software system for satellite constellations, which is being developed by Ball Aerospace and Booz Allen Hamilton.
This is a single platform for data exchange and equipment control in orbit, which can be used by any military departments working with any spacecraft.
The problem is that now all military organizations associated with space are either already using or creating their own satellite control and data exchange systems from scratch.
They need to be unified. Most likely, GC3 will absorb a similar program Enterprise Ground Services ( EGS), which is handled by Space Systems Command.
Hammett’s interview shows how the US military, despite the “sprawling” bureaucracy and the complexity of the political system, keep up with the rapidly changing market and technological changes in the industry.
According to the Director of SRCO, the space industry is growing at an unprecedented rate, the agency should not be left behind, especially since government customers still play a key role in this market.
One of the most exciting and promising areas, according to Hammett, is satellite automation. He cites the example of SpaceX, which brings out 60 satellites at a time, and the devices independently diverge in orbit.
These are exactly the technologies that the Space Force definitely wants to see in their arsenal in the near future.
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