Newly Issued GAO Statement on Space Acquisitions
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) yesterday issued a new statement of interest to the defense acquisition workforce entitled GAO-22-105900 Space Acquisitions: Changing Environment Presents Continuing Challenges and Opportunities for DOD”.
According to the GAO, “For decades, space remained largely the purview of a handful of countries and mostly free from threats. But now many countries have satellites, private companies offer satellite-based services, and some countries have demonstrated they could target and destroy satellites. It is in this new context that DOD aims to modernize its space systems. We testified that DOD's key challenges and opportunities include: completing the standup of the Space Force, undertaking new acquisition approaches, leveraging commercial capabilities, updating existing systems, and responding to new and emerging threats.”
They go on to state “…DOD space systems provide critical capabilities that support military and national security operations. Such systems are expensive to acquire and field, costing billions of dollars each year. The recently established U.S. Space Force will consolidate leadership, planning, and management for selected DOD space programs, as appropriate and authorized. This statement (1) provides a description of key space system development efforts and summarizes the results of GAO's recent related reports, and (2) addresses challenges and opportunities facing acquisitions of new space systems. This statement is based on GAO reports issued since 2020 on DOD space programs. It also draws on work supporting GAO's annual reports on major defense acquisition programs and other reports on acquisition reforms.”
According to the GAO, “For decades, space remained largely the purview of a handful of countries and mostly free from threats. But now many countries have satellites, private companies offer satellite-based services, and some countries have demonstrated they could target and destroy satellites. It is in this new context that DOD aims to modernize its space systems. We testified that DOD's key challenges and opportunities include: completing the standup of the Space Force, undertaking new acquisition approaches, leveraging commercial capabilities, updating existing systems, and responding to new and emerging threats.”
They go on to state “…DOD space systems provide critical capabilities that support military and national security operations. Such systems are expensive to acquire and field, costing billions of dollars each year. The recently established U.S. Space Force will consolidate leadership, planning, and management for selected DOD space programs, as appropriate and authorized. This statement (1) provides a description of key space system development efforts and summarizes the results of GAO's recent related reports, and (2) addresses challenges and opportunities facing acquisitions of new space systems. This statement is based on GAO reports issued since 2020 on DOD space programs. It also draws on work supporting GAO's annual reports on major defense acquisition programs and other reports on acquisition reforms.”