House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., left, and ranking member Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., attend the House and Senate committee markup of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 in Dirksen Building on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The leaders of the House Armed Services Committee are hitting at Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman about whether the Space Force is adequately building its acquisition workforce, according to a new letter obtained by Breaking Defense.
In the letter addressed to Saltzman, Rep. Mike Rogers, R.-Ala., and Rep. Adam Smith, D.-Wash., respectively the chairman and ranking member of the HASC, say they are concerned Saltzman and his team are too focused on boosting operators inside America’s youngest military branch: “We fear a divide that elevates operators at the detriment to other core functions of the Space Force will have negative impacts, potentially not immediately, but as we look to 2030 and beyond,” the duo wrote.
The letter, which is dated today, calls out that acquisition issues were notably absent in Saltzman’s presentations last week during the Space Force Association’s Spacepower 2024 conference, something the members say is a disconnect from the CSO’s earlier effort to bring together acquisition and operational experts via new organizational structures called Integrated Mission Deltas.
“As we received your remarks last week at the Spacepower conference, the omission of acquisition, training and testing has raised some questions as to the previous focus on maintaining alignment across these areas. We believe this is needed to not only be successful in developing the next generation space warfighter, but also to ensure that the Service will have the skillset and workforce to design, develop, and acquire systems that Guardians are going to need in the future,” Rogers and Smith wrote.
The letter echoes remarks made by Rogers earlier today at a Space Force fifth birthday event sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) — likely a sign that the HASC leadership is comfortable making their frustrations with Saltzman’s emphasis on operators public.
To that end, the HASC leaders in the letter demand that the service provide answers to a series of questions about how acquisition expertise is being integrated into Guardian development and training. This includes providing a breakdown of what specialties are held by the officer corps by rank, “to include operations (13S, 14N, 17X), engineering (62E), and acquisition (63A).”
Further, the Space Force is tasked to describe how the new integrated deltas “will be staffed with the required acquisition personnel beginning in 2026;” what acquisition training and development programs are being provided to junior officers; and how the service is planning to recruit, train and retain acquisition officials.
