WASHINGTON - Today, Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Ranking Member Jim Cooper (D-TN) hosted a briefing open to the full committee on historical perspectives of leadership and acquisition challenges in national security space. After the briefing, the Chairman and Ranking Member made the following remarks:
“Today we hosted a closed briefing for the Full Committee to follow-up on sessions we’ve been holding all year at the subcommittee level; this follows on a classified briefing with the Intelligence Community yesterday, hosted by Chairman Thornberry. We believe it is imperative that Members understand the challenges we are facing in space from our adversaries and from our own self-imposed impediments like the current organization of space within DOD and its space capability acquisition system. The GAO provided a historical perspective on the remarkable overlap on the recommendations to fix the national security space enterprise. The time for study is over: we must now act to effect change based on the repeated recommendations. The consensus of the prior studies and reviews is that we must fix these problems. We believe the Space Corps is that fix. The status quo and further delay are indefensible.”
- Despite over 20 years of studies, reports, and commissions – some dating back to 1982 – the DoD has not significantly reorganized to address these challenges.
- These studies all identify fragmented leadership and lack of accountability as major causes of systemic failures in space acquisition.
- The GAO report cited numerous failed or failing acquisition programs, with billions of dollars of cost overruns because the current acquisition system is so complicated that no one is in charge.
- Currently, there are approximately 60 Pentagon offices and officials involved in the national security space enterprise – this will be 61 with the creation of the new A-11, a Deputy Chief of Staff of the Air Force, an Air Force proposal designed to stop the Space Corps.