By: Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, United States Space Force

Maintaining the nation’s advantage in space – a pillar of national security and the American way of life – requires fundamental change in an often-overlooked area: capability delivery.

Winning in space means moving fast.  New space systems will never be perfect, or even nearly-so.  Delivering capabilities that are good enough, and ready now, is the only way to ensure space superiority. 

The Space Force has shown it’s possible to build and begin fielding a 20-satellite constellation in just 30 months, and launch others with mere hours of warning, but even these timelines will be insufficient in sustained space competition and conflict.

The pace of the threat requires nothing less than a modern-day Apollo moonshot mentality: reinventing how the service identifies gaps, builds operational concepts, matures technology, develops, delivers, and maintains systems to guarantee control of space.

The Space Force no longer has the luxury of time.

Satellites enable smartphones, e-Commerce, financial systems, agriculture, power grids, internet access, traffic lights, and more across American society.  Space is equally vital to national security, with every military branch relying on immediate and uninterrupted space effects in their war plans.  In modern warfare, without space, kill chains break and strategic advantage disappears.  The daily lives and security of all Americans are stitched together by the capabilities the U.S. Space Force delivers and defends.

At the same time, adversaries, especially China, are working at breathtaking speeds to take that advantage away with a disconcerting array of space weapons.  The U.S. must never lose its decisive military and civil advantage in space.

That’s our job as the U.S. Space Force.

The Space Force must field systems that can join the fight early, it must invest in its workforce to deliver on these complex promises, and it must mature its partnerships across all sectors of the nation.

Today, the United States has the will and the capability to evolve, and the U.S. Space Force is poised to act.

For the first time in a generation, leaders across the government are clamoring for change with unprecedented unity.  President Trump has taken an unequivocal stance on the imperative for rapid delivery.  Each time I interact with Congress I hear a clear message: go faster and develop the acquisitions workforce.  The Department has mandated a complete overhaul of the joint requirements process, and combatant commanders are demanding results.  National leaders have made these calls before, but never have they been so strong, so pervasive, and so urgent.

The Space Force is seizing this opportunity. 

The service has already established purpose-built units that integrate a mission’s operations and sustainment, and place full readiness accountability under a single commander.  Programs must deliver capabilities the moment they can contribute viable combat wins in the Joint fight.  Then, these adaptable teams will continuously iterate, improve, and upgrade – informed by the lessons of real-world operations.  This model has already paid tremendous dividends for our GPS and space radar missions, and more integrated units are on the way. 

This will not come without risk.  But even if systems are unsuccessful early on, these failures are a means to the end of more effective capabilities delivered sooner, rather than languishing until they are obsolete.

The Space Force can only achieve this high-stakes end through the dedication of its skilled acquisition workforce.  Delivering space capabilities is one of the most intricate activities on – or off – the planet, and it involves far more than just procurement.  It requires capable Guardians experienced across requirements development, analysis, wargaming, contracting, test, and sustainment.  The Space Force is now providing intensive space acquisitions training and building clear career pathways, focused on the unique culture and competencies the service needs from its acquisitions workforce.  Paired with a strong operational foundation, these Guardians are the lynchpin to deliver war-winning capabilities at the speed of the threat.

Finally, space-enabled security demands a shift in how we engage with industry.  The service and its industry partners succeed or fail as one team.  Executive-level engagements, industry-focused wargames, mutual discussion and understanding of requirements, and collaborative investments will be the cornerstones of this bond.  Programs must ensure that both the service and its industry partners benefit from shared successes and feel the sting of a mutual setback.  These finely tuned partnerships are mandatory for victory.

This generational moment demands the spirit of our nation’s first Space Race: brave men and women staring down a determined adversary and taking risks with the urgency of preserving national strategic advantage.  The Space Force must rapidly field and employ new capabilities, or the Joint Force and the nation will falter.  The service is organizing itself around smart risk-taking, building an astute and combat-minded acquisitions workforce, and underpinning its modernization with deep partnerships.  This honed force will deliver capabilities with combat utility sooner, iterate and improve as it learns, and ultimately prevail. 

Today, the Space Force is moving out to enhance how – and how fast – the service designs, builds, and delivers war-winning capabilities.

The nation demands it, and the American way of life depends on it.