Secretive Military Space Agency Is Stepping Out of the Shadows
SpaceX Falcon Heavy launched Jan. 15 a national-security mission to geostationary orbit. The Space Force revealed that three of its most secretive agencies, Space Rapid Capabilities Office, developed the payloads.
This announcement was unusual because the Space RCO, located at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, operates below radar and rarely advertises what they do.
Kelly Hammett is the director of the Space RCO. He said that the publicizing of satellites from the USSF-67 mission was part of a larger effort to shed the office’s veil of secrecy.
“We’re going to be a little bit more open about what we do,” He said SpaceNews A recent interview.
Hammett was the director of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s directed energy division before he assumed the role of Space RCO head seven months ago. His goals for the space agency are to increase its visibility on Capitol Hill as well as work with a wider spectrum of the space industry.
This is not an easy task. “if people don’t know we exist or what we do,” He said.
WHAT IS THE SPACE ROCO?
The Space Force has three acquisition agencies: the Space Development Agency, the Space Systems Command and the Space Development Agency.
The 2018 National Defense Authorization Act established the Space RCO. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D.N.M) was its main supporter in Congress.
Heinrich had long been critical of the Air Force’s inability to support the Operationally Responsive Space Office (ORS) at Kirtland Air Force Base. In 2007, the ORS Office was created to manage small satellites and fast-response systems. However, in 2013, the Air Force stopped funding the office in order to consolidate its activities in its main space procurement shop in Los Angeles: the Space and Missile Systems Center.
Despite Congress continuing to add money for ORS over several years, Heinrich eventually pushed for the creation of a separate organization for rapid acquisitions of space that would be physically and independently from the Space and Missile Systems Center. This is now known as the Space Systems Command. The Space RCO was then created.
Heinrich and other legislators at the time complained that the Air Force’s procurement bureaucracy was not flexible enough to address challenges posed by space powers rivals, which threatened to strike U.S. systems using anti-satellite weaponry.
The Space Rapid Capabilities Office is far more autonomous than other military procurement offices.
Space RCO was modelled after the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, which was established in 2003. Air Force RCO worked mostly behind-the scenes to develop the X-37B reusable uncrewed spaceplane and B-21 long-range bomber.
Space RCO employs around 200 people, including 80 civilian and military officers. The remainder are support contractors.
The Space RCO functions in a very different way than its Air Force counterpart. It has far more autonomy and is delegated congressional authority to allocate resources.
Hammett indicated that while the agency does not reveal its annual funding but that he expected budgets to increase and his workload to grow as more money is spent by the Pentagon on space programs in order to compete with China.
Most RCO projects are funded by the Space Force’s classified budget, which has soared in recent years — from $3.7 billion in 2021 to $6.5 billion in 2023, according to estimates from the aerospace consulting firm Velos.
“It’s a very dynamic environment,” Hammett said. “The demand signal is growing for space systems, services and capabilities. If you watch what happened in the budget over the last couple years, the Space Force budget is just skyrocketing because of this demand signal, and a big chunk of that demand signal is coming to us.”
SPACE COMMAND IS THE MAIN BUYER
U.S. Space Command can directly contact the Space RCO to meet an urgent need. The RCO board of director approves the command’s request and doesn’t need to go through the Joint Chiefs of Staff rigorous requirements-vetting process. This is what makes most programs last.
The Space RCO board comprises the Secretary of Air Force, Chief of Space Operations and the Undersecretaries of Defense for Research and Acquisition.
The Congress also granted the RCO discretionary authority to pay projects from a line of consolidated appropriations. “There’s no magic formula for rapid acquisition,” Hammett said. “It’s using all the tools in the toolkit.”
It is a great help. “all my money comes in one pot so I can shift it between programs based on execution and needs. I don’t need congressional approval to reprogram funds in a year of execution. That flexibility is key,” He added.
Space RCO can award contracts up to $1Billion with minimal red tape. “We don’t have to go to the Pentagon or to the service acquisition executive to get approval below that,” Hammett said. “It’s another thing that lets us go fast.”
Hammett stated that these authorities allow projects move faster than traditional programs. However, the agency’s culture plays a significant role. There are fewer approval layers for a small organization than in an office that oversees major DoD acquisition programs.
Hammett stated that the Pentagon exemptions granted by Congress and by the Defense Department are not guaranteed. “If we misuse any of those authorities, they will be taken away from us.”
FOCUS ON GROUND SYSTEMS AND SATELLITES
Hammett pointed out that the three Space RCO smallsats, launched on USSF-67, are not experiments. They are operational satellites supporting military operations. Two have space situational awareness sensors while the other one has an encryption payload to protect satellite communications uplink or downlink.
“The technologies aboard these satellites will be leveraged by the Space Force and probably will proliferate to other systems,” Hammett said. He pointed out that the payloads could be produced and delivered in less time than three years. This speed is unprecedented according to military procurement standards.
Space RCO has only discussed the USSF-67 payloads.
One is SCAR. Short for Satellite Communications Augmentation Resource. The goal of SCAR is to modernize the military’s aging network satellite antennas with electronically steerable phasesd arrays. BlueHalo, a defense contractor, was awarded an $8.4 billion, eight-year Space RCO contract last year to replace old analog antennas by new phased arrays.
SCAR was created in response to a U.S. Space Command urgent request to increase the military’s Satellite Control Network’s capacity to command and control military spacecrafts. “We have a huge proliferation of new payloads going into orbit, and we need more communications capabilities from the ground,” said Hammett.
Space RCO also manages a project called GC3, Ground Command, Control, and Communications. This architecture is used to operate military satellites. Booz Allen Hamilton is the principal contractor.
“This is a program that we’re starting to talk a little bit more about,” Hammett said. The initial purpose was to procure ground systems for RCO satellites. However, it has since evolved into an ambitious effort towards developing a common platform that could also be used by military satellites.
A similar program is run by the Space Systems Command, called Enterprise Ground Services (or EGS). There are ongoing discussions “about unifying the ground software efforts in the EGS program and our GC3 program,” said Hammett. The goal is to “try to latch those up and provide a more common look and feel for the operator.”
Space Force has a variety of specialized equipment. “proliferation of all these new systems, each with different user interfaces,” He said. It is expensive to support multiple ground-control system, so the Air Force created the EGS program many years ago. “We’ll be working with Space Systems Command to see how we move this into the modern age,” said Hammett.
RCO collaborates with the Space Force’s Space Operations Command in order to gather feedback from users prior to new systems being acquired. Hammett said that this command is responsible for training and equipping Space Force Guardians. “They are going to help us make sure they can operate the system” He added that it was never too late to make some changes. “We’re addressing their concerns.”
Hammett couldn’t discuss several other Space RCO projects. He said that there are many more.
“We’re already close to running out of desks,” He said. “I don’t want to get too big, but we have been working on a potential military construction project at Kirtland Air Force Base to get a bigger facility.”
OPPORTUNITIES IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR
Hammett stated that Space RCO wants to use commercial space technology. Companies that do not have the necessary clearances or facilities may face barriers due to the highly classified nature most of the agency’s projects.
“We are aware that there are emerging companies” He stated that technology was being developed to meet military needs. A group of “tech scouts” Attends industry events and conferences regularly. “They don’t always broadcast a lot. But they’re paying attention to what’s emerging.”
Hammett pointed out that the three Space RCO smallsats, launched on USSF-67, are not experiments. They are operational satellites that support military activities.
Hammett spoke at unclassified industry gatherings. “we talk about what we can, and we’re going to be talking about more … We want new entrants to tell us what their capabilities are.”
Hammett mentioned that technology to automate satellite operations and constellation management is of particular interest.
“We see SpaceX deploy the Starlink constellation 60 satellites at a time, and they have onboard automation,” He said. “I’ll say that’s probably the one thing that is the most exciting to me that we’re seeing in commercial systems.”
Contrary to military satellite operators “the SpaceX guys don’t have a bunch of antennas all over the world driving their satellites. They fly autonomously. And that’s certainly a technology that we would want to leverage in the future, and there are other companies doing that too.”
Frank Calvelli, Space Force’s new space acquisition executive, is an advocate for rapid procurement as well as the use of commercial technologies. This is encouraging news, stated Hammett.
“He’s trying to move the needle,” He said. “I think he has really brought some much-needed focus and discipline.”
Hammett stated that Space RCO’s mission is in large part military. “But there are commercially available mature solutions, and we just need to understand the maturity of the solutions. That drives our acquisition strategies.”
U.S. Space Command is pleased to see an increase in acquisitions. The command has a growing list technologies it needs to protect and enhance U.S. systems, according to Lt. Gen. John Shaw (deputy commander of U.S. Space Command), Jan. 24.
The dialogue between the command’s procurement agencies and the Department of the Air Force “is better than it’s ever been,” He spoke at the National Security Space Association’s Defense and Intelligence Conference.
“We communicate regularly about where we think we’re going and what are the capabilities we think we need,” He said. “And we see them trying to respond.”
“Calvelli wants to move faster, deliver more capability and resilience, and that’s exactly what we need to do our mission,” Shaw said.
Shaw shared his thoughts on the Space Force acquisition venture’s performance thus far. “They are delivering things, and I expect even more.”
This article was originally published in SpaceNews magazine, February 2023.
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