Space Force: what’s the organizational design?

The Space Development Agency, which would be a joint procurement arm in charge of setting standards and avoiding the duplication on space technology, appears to be the hub of Shanahan’s plans for rebuilding the Pentagon’s space architecture.

There has been a widespread assumption, among those tracking progress on creation of the agency, that it would be headed by someone from the space community. However, Shanahan made it clear that space experience may be nice, but isn’t his priority for a candidate.

DefenseNews. Two things on that.

First, the idea that we will save money in a space at the technological frontier by avoiding duplication is an old hat. But concepts of scale efficiencies are often the enemy of innovation.

It’s interesting that when the DOD was formed in 1947 (originally the National Defense Establishment), its goal was to centralize and reduce duplication, but it simultaneously created a third service, the Air Force. Well, that increase in the number of services really is part of centralization. 

Creating more agencies allows missions to be merged and controlled from a single office. That’s how we get straight-line hierarchies. To manage the space portfolio, you don’t have to go to SMC, the Navy, and so forth. There’s a single line of command.

Now, at the Key West agreement in 1948, the Army agreed not to produce fixed-wing aircraft over a certain weight (which is why they today produce smaller UAVs). The Navy was supposed to lose its land forces (Marines) and air forces to complete the segregation of missions. Luckily, James Forrestal fought like the dickens to maintain the integrity of the Navy.

So creating more agencies does not mean more decentralization or duplication. It means the opposite. It means clearly segregating lines of command and controlling missions through one office.

Second, it is perhaps true that the head of Space Force doesn’t need to know about space. A good leader with business acumen is maybe all that is needed.

But Shanahan wants that person with “real technical chops” on integration. Well, I’d guess integrating a space architecture, with ground systems, payloads, buses, and so forth, is a completely different endeavor than integrating an aircraft system or the naval force structure.