As National AI Panel Shuts Down, New Think Tank Emerges to Continue Its Work

Oct. 18, 2021 | By Amanda Miller

The congressionally chartered National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence has completed its work, but the team that created its 756-page report will continue, backed this time by its former chair, Eric Schmidt, who is committing his own money to the new effort, dubbed the “Special Competitive Studies Project.”

The project is funded by the Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation, a family-led nonprofit.

Eric Schmidt was chief executive officer, then executive chairman, at Google and its parent company, Alphabet, from 2001 to 2017, then served as a technical adviser to Alphabet until 2020. He ranks 30th on Forbes’ 2021 list of “400 wealthiest Americans” with a fortune worth $23.5 billion. He has become a major influencer in defense technology and innovation over the past several years. He served on the NSCAI from 2018 to 2021 and simultaneously led the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board for most of that time, which he chaired from 2016 to 2020 as it drafted DOD’s ethical principals for AI.

Schmidt was technical adviser when Google briefly joined DOD’s Project Maven, which uses machine learning to identify people and objects in intelligence imagery, in 2018. After Google staff objected, however, Google discontinued its ties with the program. Robert Work, who is credited with starting Project Maven as deputy defense secretary in 2018, was Schmidt’s vice chair on the NSCAI and is his co-chair on the new Special Competitive Studies Project, or SCSP.

Schmidt continues to invest in AI technology and heads the list of investors in AI startup Rebellion Defense, founded in 2019 and reportedly valued at $1 billion as of September. Rebellion’s CEO is Chris Lynch, the founding director of the Defense Digital Service and the driving force behind the “Hack the Pentagon” bounty hunting program and the Pentagon’s failed Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, cloud computing program.

The new SCSP, an LLC within the family nonprofit, aims to make recommendations to the government not only on AI but also on other “emerging technologies” that will “reshape our national security, economy, and society,” according to spokesperson Tara Rigler, who held the same role with the national AI commission.

Joining Schmidt on the SCSP board of advisors are Work, the former deputy secretary of defense who is a consultant and senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, or CNAS; Michele Flournoy, a CNAS co-founder and its current board chair, and former undersecretary of defense for policy in the Obama administration—Flournoy and Work serve together advising AI contractor SparkCognition Government Services; Nadia Schadlow, former deputy national security adviser for strategy in the Trump administration; and former U.S. representative and chair of the House Armed Services Committee William M. “Mac” Thornberry (R-Texas).

“All potential conflicts of interest will be closely monitored by legal counsel,” Rigler said.

SCSP draws its historical inspiration from the Cold War-era’s Rockefeller Special Studies Project, or SSP, launched in 1956 by Nelson A. Rockefeller, the grandson of John D. Rockefeller Sr., co-founder of Standard Oil. Nelson A. Rockefeller would later become governor of New York then Vice President during Gerald Ford’s presidency. Rockefeller’s project was led by Henry Kissinger, who became national security adviser and Secretary of State under Richard Nixon and Ford.

“In the midst of the Cold War, as the U.S. was facing roiling domestic and international conditions, Rockefeller and Kissinger brought together some of the nation’s leading thinkers to study the major problems and opportunities confronting the country, to chart a path to revitalize American society, restore a strong bipartisan national security strategy, and renew American leadership,” explains the Oct. 5 news release announcing SCSP’s launch.

Yll Bajraktari, who was the NSCAI’s executive director, will serve as the chief executive officer at SCSP. He was chief of staff to retired Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster during McMaster’s tenure as national security adviser to Donald Trump.

Rigler confirmed that more members of the NSCAI staff are moving over and that SCSP “is still recruiting and hiring additional members, including experts on areas that SCSP will look into.” She said Bajraktari will “build a team of technologists, national security professionals, and subject-matter experts to study and recommend methods to strengthen America’s long-term competitiveness.”

Rigler said SCSP is “building its research plan around the areas that we believe national leaders need to focus on, specifically topic areas essential to ensuring our national competitiveness.”

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 11:25 a.m. on Oct. 19 to note that the Special Competitive Studies Project has a board of advisors and Yll Bajraktari will serve as SCSP’s chief executive officer.

Lockheed Martin Says It Will Compete for Advanced Fighter Trainer

Oct. 15, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

Lockheed Martin will offer a solution to the Air Force’s new Advanced Tactical Trainer aircraft, a new jet the Air Force is planning to bridge undergraduate flight instruction and full-up fighter certification. However, the company declined to say what it might offer for the nascent competition.

The Air Force issued a request for information seeking industry interest in an Advanced Tactical Trainer on Oct. 12, saying it has a need for at least 100 and perhaps as many as 400 of the new airplanes.

Lockheed Martin “is an air power solutions leader, delivering capabilities across the entire spectrum of training and combat aircraft,” a company spokesperson said. It has made “significant advances in digital engineering and open architectures that are accelerating development, production, upgrades and responsiveness.” The company looks forward to “closely reviewing the requirements” for the ATT system “and developing the best solution to meet the Air Force’s future needs.”

When asked specifically if Lockheed Martin will offer the T-50A—with which it and partner Korea Aerospace Industries finished second in the Air Force’s T-X Advanced Trainer competition—or offer a different airplane, or a clean-sheet design, the spokesperson declined comment.

However, the carefully-worded response suggests that Lockheed Martin might indeed offer a fresh concept, as Boeing’s T-7A Red Hawk was chosen largely because of its tailored approach to the T-X requirement and the record time in which the company designed and fabricated prototypes of the new trainer. Lockheed Martin’s statement emphasizes that it has the capability to do that, as well. In fact, it recently opened a new production facility at its Skunk Works Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif., specifically for short-run production and rapid prototyping of advanced systems.

Industry officials said at the time of the T-X down-select that Lockheed Martin was taking the Air Force at its word when the service said it preferred a non-developmental airplane for that contest. The company had actually helped KAI develop the T-50 with the intent of offering it to the Air Force as a T-38 replacement in the early 2000s, but that competition was deferred more than a decade.

Service officials said they initially believed a non-developmental T-X approach would offer the lowest risk and price, but Boeing’s digitally-designed proposal, at about $10 billion less than what USAF expected the T-X would cost, persuaded the service that the clean sheet was actually the lowest-cost solution.

Lockheed Martin is likely to secure an Air Force contract for a T-7A surrogate—the T-50—with which the Air Force plans to develop its “Reforge” overhaul of the fighter pilot training enterprise. But service leaders in recent years have touted an aircraft common to the T-7A as offering a two-birds-with-one-stone way to gain another platform without heavy additional development costs, which also has the benefit of using the simulator and training infrastructure and courseware that will come with the T-7A.

The T-7A is not a shoo-in for the ATT program, though. The Air Force has said it’s open to all offerers and wants capabilities—such as wing hardpoints—that the T-7A does not have. The Air Force also wants a less sophisticated combat aircraft on which it can partner with countries lacking the resources for a fighter like the F-35 or F-16. Former Skunk Works president Rob Weiss said the company developed a clean-sheet design for T-X but dropped it when the cost figures suggested the non-developmental approach better met USAF’s needs.

Space Force Shakes Up Acquisition Again in Effort to Achieve Efficiencies

Oct. 15, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

The Space Force confirmed that it will reorganize space acquisition and space policy authorities starting Oct. 18 in an effort to streamline decision-making in line with Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s plan announced in August.

As first reported by Breaking Defense on Oct. 15, the Department of the Air Force described a plan to break out space policy from the as-yet unnamed space acquisitions chief. The move would reduce the number of personnel required to sign off on policy decisions by transferring space policy to the Chief of Space Operations and the Secretary of the Air Force.

In August, Kendall described his plan to consolidate the Space Acquisition Directorate from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, or SAF/AQ, into a new organization, Space Acquisition and Integration, or SAF/ SQ. Space acquisition policy remains within SAF/ SQ, while broader space policy moves to Space Force and responsibility for international affairs shifts to the deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for international affairs, or SAF/ IA.

No further details were available by press time.

Kendall in August named Brig. Gen. Steven P. Whitney to head the space acquisitions office until an assistant secretary for space acquisition and integration is named. Whitney has managed the reorganization pending the appointment of that new civilian leader.

Congress has for months railed against the slow pace of space acquisitions reform and the absence of a civilian chief. In a July report, the House Appropriations Committee claimed the Air Force was dragging its feet.

“The Committee remains concerned that the Air Force has not taken more aggressive action in addressing longstanding space acquisition issues,” the report read.

Lawmakers also said the Air Force had “made little progress in defining what the Space Force will be doing that is fundamentally different than when it was a component of the Air Force.”

On Sept. 20 at the Air Force Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference, both Kendall and Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond expressed confidence in the reorganization of space acquisition, even though an assistant secretary had not yet been named.

“We’re actually interviewing people right now for the space acquisitions assistant secretary position,” Kendall said at the ASC media briefing, foreshadowing the office reorganization and personnel movement. “So, it’s moving forward. I’m reasonably happy with the pace.”

Raymond commended Kendall for his moves to change the space acquisition process.

“One of the things that Congress discussed when they passed the law that established the Space Force was the need to move at speed and to bring unity of effort across the department to reduce duplication,” Raymond said at the briefing. “This acquisition piece that the Secretary has really advanced from Day 1 coming in the office is a critical part of that.”

AMC Green Lights KC-46 to Refuel F-15s, F-16s; 62 Percent of Receivers Now Cleared

Oct. 15, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

Air Force F-15s and F-16s are now cleared to refuel from new KC-46A tankers using the air-to-air refueling boom, the head of Air Mobility Command, Gen. Mike Minihan, directed Oct. 15. The move means 62 percent of aircraft that “request air refueling support” from U.S. Transportation Command can now be accommodated using the Pegasus tanker, AMC said.

The order is the third “interim capability release” since July clearing aircraft to refuel from the KC-46, which is operationally restricted due to boom operator display problems. The Air Force had been using the aircraft in a transport role before Air Mobility Command issued recent ICRs approving tanking operations for some airplanes.

The first ICR was issued in July and approved the use of the KC-46’s centerline “hose and drogue” apparatus to refuel Navy, Marine Corps, and allied aircraft that use that system. In the hose and drogue method, the receiving aircraft flies a probe into a basket at the end of a fuel hose deployed from the tanker, and the receiving aircraft does all the maneuvering to make the connection.

The second ICR came in August, when then-AMC commander (now TRANSCOM commander) Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost approved several “heavies”—the C-17 airlifter, the B-52 bomber, and the KC-46 itself—to refuel behind the KC-46, using the aircraft’s flying boom system. With the boom method, an operator onboard the tanker flies a hard, telescoping refueling pipe into a receptacle on the receiving aircraft. On the KC-46, the operator is stationed just behind the cockpit and uses a 3-D video display to conduct the refueling. Those displays suffer from latency and blind spots in certain conditions, causing contractor Boeing and the Air Force to restrict the boom’s use.

The latest ICR clears “all variants” of the F-15 and F-16 to tank up from the KC-46, AMC said. The move “allows the Pegasus aircraft to accept operational taskings which would otherwise be filled by the KC-135 Stratotanker and KC-10 Extender, increasing the force’s refueling capacity,” the command said in a press release.

The Air Force is still gauging whether refueling the F-22 and F-35 fighters and the B-2 bomber from the Pegasus is safe. The KC-46 has previously scratched the sensitive treatments on stealth aircraft in testing, potentially compromising their low observability.

“There is no timeline associated with the overall ICR plan,” AMC said in its statement. Rather, aircraft are being cleared to refuel from the KC-46 when it’s deemed safe to do so.

The ICR plan “focuses on establishing incremental confidence measures” that allow the AMC commander “and other senior leaders” to “quantitatively and qualitatively” assess the aircraft’s “achievements at ICR milestones.” Crews flying the KC-46 will continue to “fly training, exercise and demonstration missions until all operational confidence measures are met,” AMC said.

Van Ovost Takes Command of TRANSCOM, Pledging to ‘Underpin Lethality’

Oct. 15, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

Air Force Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost assumed command of U.S. Transportation Command during a ceremony at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., on Oct. 15, becoming just the second woman to lead a combatant command.

Taking over for Army Gen. Stephen R. Lyons, Van Ovost will lead TRANSCOM as it comes off a string of high-profile logistical challenges.

“You had to keep the American military moving during a historic pandemic, and you delivered,” Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III told the troops of TRANSCOM during the Oct. 15 ceremony. “You had to execute a complex retrograde in Somalia, and you delivered. And you had to conduct the largest noncombatant evacuation airlift in American history in Afghanistan, and you delivered.”

Van Ovost played a key role in these challenges, especially the Afghanistan evacuation, as head of Air Mobility Command, and she has spent much of her career dealing with logistics, previously leading an air refueling squadron, a flying training wing, and the Presidential Airlift Wing.

Those experiences, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley said, make her uniquely qualified to lead the more than 122,000 Active-duty, National Guard, Reserve, and civilian personnel who are part of TRANSCOM.

“The sky is the limit with Jackie Van Ovost,” Milley said. “She will take TRANSCOM into the future. She will take you to your next rendezvous with destiny, as we say in the Army.”

Both Austin and Milley emphasized the importance of TRANSCOM to the U.S. in a new phase of strategic competition with peer adversaries such as China and Russia.

“Our overmatch capability will continue to rely on the logistical prowess and the ability to project power by TRANSCOM at great distances,” Milley said.

“Logistics remain at the core of our warfighting concept and our ability to project and sustain combat power,” added Austin. “That’s why this command is central to our operations in the 21st century and to our vision of truly integrated deterrence.”

Van Ovost noted that TRANSCOM’s mission is expansive and not always confined to combat operations.

“We understand our mission is critical for national defense to meet our national security objectives. I also know our role is not always to provide combat power, because we deliver hope on behalf of the American people,” Van Ovost said. “I’ve seen our values reflected in the kindness and compassion demonstrated by our teammates executing humanitarian operations around the globe and right here at home.”

At the same time, she said, as the U.S. shifts from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to competition with countries such as China, the command’s military demands will change.

“Know that TRANSCOM’s No. 1 priority remains constant: Warfighting readiness is the surest way to prevent war. We expect that our freedom to maneuver will be challenged; our logistics lines will be contested at every level. But together with our coalition partners and our commercial teammates, we will flatten the globe and underpin the lethality of our nation’s military arm,” Van Ovost said.

To meet these new challenges, the military needs “every Jackie Van Ovost that we can get,” Austin said, pointing to her trailblazing career as a test pilot who has flown more than 30 kinds of aircraft for the Air Force.

“Gen. Van Ovost, in the 21st century, careers like yours are a fighting imperative,” Austin said. “And as she likes to say, as young women looking up, it’s hard to be what you cannot see. So Gen. Van Ovost knows the importance of breaking barriers, of getting results in bringing teams together. And she’s used to challenges that have never been tackled before.”

Van Ovost is currently the only female four-star general in the Defense Department and just the fourth in Air Force history. She and Gen. Lori J. Robinson are now the only women to lead a unified combatant command—Robinson headed U.S. Northern Command and NORAD from 2016 to 2018.

Their small club will expand in the coming weeks, though—Army Lt. Gen. Laura J. Richardson is set to receive her fourth star and take command of U.S. Southern Command in a ceremony Oct. 29.

C-17 Pilot is Biden’s Nominee for USAF Installations Czar

Oct. 14, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

The Biden Administration plans to nominate Ravi Chaudhary, a former Air Force C-17 pilot and member of the Senior Executive Service with the Federal Aviation Administration, as assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, environment, and energy.

The White House announced President Joe Biden’s intent to nominate Chaudhary on Oct. 14.

Self-employed since August 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile, Chaudhary previously served at the Federal Aviation Administration. In his last post, he was director of advanced programs and innovation in the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, where he presided over the nascent private launch industry.

He was previously the FAA’s executive director of regions and center operations, where he oversaw safety operations, emergency preparedness, and facilities management. In that position, he was required to coordinate with the Air Force as he oversaw development of the “NextGen” FAA air traffic control system, short for Next Generation Air Transportation System. NextGen has moved ahead in fits and starts as the FAA struggled to stay ahead of new technologies.

Chaudhary served a 22-year career in the Air Force, according to his White House bio, during much of which he was a C-17 pilot. He also worked as a uniformed engineer with the Space and Missile Systems Center, where he was a specialist on Delta II launch vehicle avionics. In his last USAF assignment, he was chief of strategy and integration, and prior to that, was a speechwriter for Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz. He served as a member of the Obama administration’s President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans.

An Air Force Academy graduate, Chaudhary holds a doctorate in executive leadership and innovation from Georgetown University.

If confirmed, Chaudhary would succeed John Henderson in the assistant secretary role. Henderson left the position in January with the change of administrations, but his tenure focused on several issues likely to be front and center for his successor.

These include recovery from natural disasters at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., and Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.; improving base resilience to natural disasters; “off-the-grid” base power generation; improved housing for Airmen; and resolving USAF’s $33 billion backlog of real property maintenance.

Chaudhary would also become the point person for the Department of the Air Force’s re-look at the selection of Alabama as the new headquarters for U.S. Space Command, which has been challenged by members of Congress from Colorado and other states.

Contractor Employees Who Object to Vaccines May Not Get Much Backup

Oct. 14, 2021 | By Amanda Miller

As the military’s COVID-19 vaccination deadlines close in, federal contractors are also demanding employees get vaccinated, driven by President Biden’s Sept. 9 executive order.

Boeing confirmed Oct. 14 that its U.S. employees must be vaccinated by Dec. 8. “To ensure compliance with President Biden’s executive order for federal contractors, Boeing is requiring its U.S-based employees to either show proof of vaccination or have an approved reasonable accommodation (based on a disability or sincerely held religious belief) by Dec. 8,” the company said in a statement. “Boeing will continue to carefully monitor guidance from public health agencies, and requirements from federal, state and local governments to inform our COVID-19 policies. We continue to prioritize the health and safety of all our employees.”

L3Harris and Honeywell reportedly have announced Dec. 8 deadlines as well, and Lockheed Martin says on its website that it is “following a U.S. federal government requirement for all federal contractors and subcontractors with a covered contract to observe COVID-19 safety practices … and become fully vaccinated.”

The orders are setting up potential challenges and conflicts as unions, individuals, state governors, and the courts take up challenges. The Biden administration maintains that the order is within the president’s powers and that federal authority supersedes state regulators with regard to federal contractors.

In defiance of local and state measures prohibiting vaccine mandates, such as in Texas, the Pentagon argued in a statement Thursday that federal law supersedes those rules, according to Defense One.

About 63 percent of working-age Americans were vaccinated as of Oct. 7, according to the White House. Assuming those working for federal contractors are roughly consistent with that trend, that suggests thousands if not tens of thousands of unvaccinated employees stand to lose their jobs if they choose to remain unvaccinated or they fail to get a waiver. Yet what it will take to get a waiver is also unclear, as is who gets to determine what constitutes a “sincerely held religious belief” or who gets to decide which appeals have merit.

Based on “a rapid rise in cases and hospitalizations,” Biden issued executive orders Sept. 9 mandating that federal employees get vaccinated by Dec. 8 and requiring contractors and subcontractors to comply with the same guidance issued by the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force.

Some employees have already begun to object. Protesters rallied against the federal mandates in Florida on Oct. 11, including a Northrop Grumman structural aircraft mechanic who told Florida Today she and coworkers were “backed into a corner.”

The Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of the Military said in a statement that a broad definition of conscientious objection should apply, but others have been less supportive. The American Civil Liberties Union, which often sides with individuals against institutions, supports the government mandate, as does the libertarian CATO Institute, which cautiously acknowledges “a health emergency, which means that suitably modified, narrowly-tailored, time-limited rules may be justified.”

Bomber Task Force Refuels With Airmen-Designed Kit Fit for ACE

Oct. 14, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

Master Sgt. Jason Yunker literally scribbled his hot-pit refueling idea on the back of a bar napkin. As of Oct. 11, it became part of the Air Force’s new operational concept of agile combat employment while promising to save his command more than $1 million a year.

At Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany, the Airmen-invented Versatile Integrated Partner Equipment Refueling kit, or VIPER, refueled a B-1 bomber for the first time following a Bomber Task Force Mission-Europe operation in the Baltic region.

“It’s making waves—it’s doing great things,” U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa spokesperson 1st Lt. Charis Bryan told Air Force Magazine on Oct. 14.

The Air Force has typically sent refueling trucks to air bases at a cost of $80,000 each by air or $14,000 each over land in Europe, with wait times between three and 10 days. As a non-hazardous material unit, the VIPER kit can empty of fuel in 10 minutes and weighs a sixth of a refueling truck.

The VIPER kit is projected to save USAFE-AFAFRICA nearly $1.3 million annually in fuel truck-shipping costs alone.

The kit uses host nation refueling equipment to refuel any U.S. Air Force aircraft, anywhere in the world, functioning as a universal fuel adapter. It also helps the Air Force implement its Agile Combat Employment concept, which seeks to rely less on large, traditional air bases.

“The big difference is that it can basically adapt to different types of aircraft,” said Bryan from Ramstein Air Force Base following the first bomber refueling. The VIPER had already refueled an F-16.

Yunker and fellow 52nd Fighter Wing, 52nd Logistics Readiness Squadron member Master Sgt. Tim Peters designed the VIPER kit from pre-existing Air Force materials and competed at AFWERX’s 2021 Spark Tank finals during the Air Force Association’s virtual Aerospace Warfare Symposium in February.

The innovation, Yunker said at the time, mimics how pitstops quickly service race cars. He said the idea came to him while deployed on a bomber mission in the summer of 2020, when two fuel trucks had to be shipped for one 10-minute bomber refueling.

“That’s when we realized we have to find a better way,” he told a panel of nine celebrity judges that included acting Secretary of the Air Force John P. Roth, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., and Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond.

While the innovation did not win the overall $2 million Spark Tank prize, it was the viewer’s choice, and as a top-five finalist, the team received $1.2 million to complete the project.

“The innovation is hopefully going to change the standard for how we do our jobs,” Yunker said in an Oct. 14 Air Force press release.

Yunker underscored how the mobile refueling sled can be used at any NATO-interoperable location or civilian airport, making it employable for hot-pit refueling—one in which engines remain on—at austere locations in the European or Indo-Pacific theaters.

There are currently two fully functional VIPER hot-pit refueling systems. By the end of 2021, USAFE is expected to distribute more than 20 additional VIPER kits to various locations throughout Europe and the Pacific.

“One of the beauties of it is that the crew can actually stay inside the aircraft, meaning that it’s that much faster,” Bryan said.

“Everything is moving as fast as possible, and you’re building up that agility aspect of it—of getting on the ground, refueling, getting back up in the sky,” she added.

When VIPER won fan favorite at the AFWERX Spark Tank competition in February, Yunker recalled the moment he first shared his bar napkin design: “I was like, ‘Hey, is this a good idea?’ And somebody was like, ‘I think so.’ And then, we just went with it.”

Bidder Maxar is Protesting SDA’s Request for 126 SmallSats

Oct. 14, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

On the same day industry proposals were due for a batch of 126 small satellites for the Space Development Agency, one of the contenders filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office.

Maxar Technologies, which provides satellite imagery and builds spacecraft, filed its protest Oct. 8 with the GAO. Offers were due the same day under the request for proposals issued by the SDA for what it calls the Transport Layer Tranche 1.

The GAO will have to issue a report on the protest within 30 days and a decision within 100 days—Jan. 18, 2022.

“Maxar is proud to be able to offer its commercially leading space capabilities to the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Transport Layer T1TL Request for Proposal,” a Maxar spokesperson said in a statement in response to queries by Air Force Magazine. “Maxar wants to ensure that the government is following its own rules in connection with the procurement and is confident that the SDA is committed to complying with the [federal acquisition regulations].”

SDA characterized protests as “not uncommon”:

“SDA is working with the GAO to achieve fast, accurate and equitable resolution to the protest received on the agency’s Tranche 1 Transport Layer solicitation,” an SDA spokesperson told Air Force Magazine. “SDA is committed to full and open competition and the agency understands protests are a potential and not uncommon part of that process.”

Maxar has won contracts in the past from the Air Force, the Army, U.S. Special Operations Command, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, among others, to provide satellite imagery, develop AI-based algorithms, and analyze geospatial data.

However, it has less experience in Defense Department contracts for hardware. In 2018, NASA selected the company’s Space Systems Loral unit as one of three prequalified candidates to compete for a contract called Small Spacecraft Prototyping Engineering Development and Integration—Space Solutions, which was intended to help the Pentagon’s Space Rapid Capabilities Office procure commercially-developed small satellites. The company did not announce any further DOD contracts.

Transport Layer Tranche 1 is intended to be one part of a large constellation of Defense Department satellites that officials say will provide missile warning, communications, data coverage and sharing, and other capabilities for the Pentagon. It’s envisioned with multiple layers and multiple tranches, or batches of satellites, per layer that frequently get updated or replaced with newer tranches. All told, SDA has said the constellation could comprise anywhere from 300 to more than 500 small satellites.

The request for proposals called for up to 126 satellites, divided between six orbital planes split between multiple vendors. Each bidder was instructed to develop two of the orbital planes, along with 42 satellites.

SDA had set a timeline of late 2024 for launching Tranche 1 and is still evaluating how Maxar’s protest may affect that timeline. Tranche 0—a collection of 28 satellites that will provide ballistic missile warning and data sharing capabilities—is expected to launch by March 31, 2023.

At a recent virtual forum hosted by Politico, SDA Director Derek M. Tournear said the agency’s goal is to roll out new capabilities, including new tranches, every two years.

“That is essentially as fast as industry can produce those components,” Tournear said.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond have both said the new constellation will provide more resiliency, spreading capabilities out to ensure adversaries cannot disrupt data flow by taking out one or two satellites.

Indeed, SDA said the tracking constellation, when complete, will provide “assured, resilient military data and conductivity” over 95 percent of Earth with at least two satellites at any given time, as well as one satellite covering 99 percent of locations on Earth.