Nichols Martin
Industry executives and government officials gathered at the Satellite Innovation 2019 conference to discuss the Department of Defense’s reliance on the commercial sector for Earth observation and communications tools, Space News reported Tuesday.
Rick Lober, vice president and general manager at Hughes Network Systems’ defense and intelligence systems unit, told Space News that the DoD will find difficulty in surpassing the volume, cost and capacity performance of industry.
The Pentagon has been pursuing ways, such as other transaction agreements, to accelerate technology procurements.
Mike Nichols, who leads commercial satellite communications at Air Force Space Command’s satellite solutions branch, said his office has been handling multiple efforts to procure real-time provisioning, real-time situational awareness and enterprise architecture under Gen. John Raymond’s command.
Ken Peterman, president of government systems at Viasat, said the DoD will also face implementation challenges as commercial technologies prompt policy and cultural changes.
“An acquisition system predicated on invention has to turn into one that can assess, adopt, apply and then evolve more effectively than ever before,†Peterman said.
