COLORADO SPRINGS—The Pentagon is beginning an effort to link commercial space innovations with U.S. military needs, to speed entry of those technologies into government use, says the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering.
The Pentagon does have multiple efforts for harvesting commercial technologies and drawing new types of companies into the military’s technology base, including the Defense Innovation Unit and service-level initiatives such as AFWERX. This effort is designed to stress the connection to the Joint Staff’s warfighting concepts.
“We will actively work to understand how commercial companies assess risks and adopt new technologies to bring down government-commercial barriers, how to rapidly transition commercial capabilities to be available to the U.S. government,” Heidi Shyu told the Space Symposium here on April 18.
She highlighted small companies that are using additive manufacturing to reduce the costs and timelines of producing rockets as well as other commercial space companies that are speeding technological innovation.
“The power of widening available commercial data is an undeniable force multiplier for pushing for early-and-often adoption of commercial providers,” Shyu said. “And key mission areas such as ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance], space, situational awareness, satellite communications, rapid launch and potentially other areas.”
Lindsey Lamar, the space principal director within the Office of the Secretary of Defense Research and Engineering, will lead the effort.
