Small but mighty, the Space Development Agency has big plans in short timeframes. In an exclusive interview, Constellations spoke with Dr. Frank Turner, Technical Director of the Space Development Agency at the Smallsat Conference on how SDA is turning acquisition on its head to deliver new space-based capabilities to the joint warfighter on aggressive new cycles.

Where acquisition can languish and meander for years on end, what distinguishes SDA from other agencies is its focus on delivering an MVP (minimal viable product) every two years, a nod to the iterative process of agile development.

Labeled by the Department of Defense as the ‘constructive disruptor in acquisition,’ Turner related how SDA has “a completely different model. We’re doing things differently on different timelines, at different speeds.”

The SDA’s secret sauce approach to acquisition might be its spiral development, delivering capabilities on two-year centers “so that we are putting out a new tranche of satellites, a new capability every two years, with the warfighter only waiting 24 months for that next level capability.”

Schedule is king

Turner explained how schedule is the all-important driver in trade-offs with capability. “It’s better to give them an 80% solution on time that they can depend on rather than waiting to get that next 5 or 10% or exquisite capability without anything to work with for five years.”

And SDA is on that schedule for some of the most ambitious programs and challenges, including the move to Joint All-Domain Operations, the Department of Defense concept for connecting sensors to shooters and moving data to the edge as fast as possible. “It’s enabling that transmission, that transport from point A to point B, to support decision making at the absolute tactical edge,” Turner said. “It’s removing barriers and latencies from wherever the data is created to wherever it’s needed on tactically relevant timelines.”

Turner explained those spirals, or tranches, in concrete terms, beginning with the Tranche 0 satellites that will launch at the end of September. This will be the first set of satellites to put Link 16 in space, he said, referring to the tactical data link that the military uses to fight wars, to communicate, and to move data. “There are 35,000 links, 16 terminals, out there that everybody uses, not just the U.S., but our allies and partners. We’re going to demonstrate that we can move data over Link 16 with Tranche 0.”

Then 24 months later, Tranche 1 will launch in September 2024, taking the Link 16 capability being demonstrated this year and giving it global access capability so warfighters anywhere on the globe can use it to support one regional conflict. That, Turner explained, will provide regional persistence in Tranche 1, with Tranche 2 filling out that capability with a global persistence to support multiple regional conflicts if necessary.

“In T0, we do the demonstration and get it up there the first time. In T1, we make it globally accessed but regionally useful. And in T2, we make it globally accessed and globally useful. It’s that constant next capability on two year centers the warfighter can depend on, and that gives us those spirals as they come out.”

If SDA’s continuous cadence of development sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same agile approach found in the software world. “And we’re extending it, if you will, to a hardware model where we’re constantly bringing out those spirals.”

SDA isn’t just borrowing concepts from industry; its relying on its commercial partners to bring those capabilities to fruition for actual deployment. He noted that SDA has already completed eight or nine acquisitions to date.

“We pride ourselves on looking for technology readiness level, TRL 6 or better so that we know that technology is ready to go to space. It may not be a 9 because it may not have been to space – Link 16 is a great example – but we know it’s ready for space and feel confident it will accomplish its intended mission.”

All-in optically

Where speed is supreme, Turner explained how SDA is building an optically-enabled mesh network in space to move data at the speed of light. The network of small satellites in LEO and optical inter-satellite links on its space vehicles will enable low latency, resilient movement of data for the warfighter on a global scale, providing new capabilities for transport and tracking. “Think of the transport layer as the backbone of Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2), the key thing or linchpin that holds it all together,” Turner said.

The tracking layer is for the specific problem of next generation advanced missiles and the hypersonic fight, moving that data over the transport layer to reduce latency to get that information into the fight. “We’re going to contribute to the warning, tracking, and defeat of the advanced missiles that adversaries are developing and deploying that will change the 21st century battlefield completely,” Turner said.

To further the move to speed-of-light operations, Turner said the SDA has published a completely open standard to help the DoD and industry understand that, “this is where the warfighter is going, and we are going to make it so that the warfighter can communicate optically globally.”

What’s NExT?

So, what does an agency regarded as a constructive disruptor in acquisition do to disrupt itself and do something different in space? “We’re actually looking for ways to provide new capabilities to a set proliferated LEO constellations,” Turner shared, going on to explain the idea behind NExT, the NDSA (National Defense Space Architecture) Experimental Testbed.

“We kind of want to do a ‘try before you buy,’ if you will. So, we’re buying space vehicle buses off assembly lines and taking those buses out to government mission partners looking for payloads.” By launching those satellites and operating them with mission partners, Turner expects to identify the next set of capabilities that they could then proliferate in Tranche 2, 3, 4 and so on to benefit warfighters.

Sending a Demand Signal

Drawing on his years of experience, Turner shared that he spent too many years in industry where the government wouldn’t talk to him. “I swore when I came back into the government, I would not be that person. That’s not the idea. It’s a partnership. We can’t be successful unless industry’s successful”

To that point, he said SDA’s director Dr. Derek Tournear, does not believe in incumbents, and that everybody has to compete every single time and compete on what should be a level playing field.

“As an example, we have four primes in Tranche 0. And we’ll probably end up with a total of maybe eight or nine prime contractors building Tranche 1 or affiliated sets of space vehicles. But the goal always is that it’s a level playing field. Each acquisition is independent and we’re trying to send enough demand signal so that people understand the schedule and wants to invest in winning a contract from SDA.”

Click here to listen to the full interview.