DARPA's next project: design a space development agency

WASHINGTON, D.C., –The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — an organization known for its unconventional approach to solving military problems — has been tasked to help the Pentagon figure out how to organize a new agency focused on space technology development. The task came from Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin, a staunch advocate of creating a Space Development Agency to spur innovation in military space programs and bring emerging technologies from the private sector into DoD. Griffin has been a vocal critic of the Pentagon's traditional procurement process and has warned that adversaries like China and Russia are advancing space technology at a much more rapid pace than the United States, reports Space.com.

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The Intelligent Aerospace take:

December 17, 2018 --While DARPA isn't addressing how it will go about reaching its goals with a Space Development Agency, the goals themselves address some known issues in U.S. military readiness as its adversaries make significant technological gains. According to a memo from Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin, a team undertaking a study on the agency will "inventory the DoD space-based command-and-control capabilities, identify critical gaps, deficiencies and inefficiencies in our existing architectures and develop an agile responsive threat-driven architecture, associated infrastructure requirements and an acquisition construct."

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Jamie Whitney, Associate Editor
Intelligent Aerospace

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