At a glance.
- US NRO and USAF seek to coordinate operations.
- US NRO and USAF also working to expand use of commercial services.
- Russian combat space operations.
- US Defense Business Board recommends permanent status for Mentor-Protege Program.
- US Congress looks for more SBIR/STTR accountability.
Coordination between NRO and US Space Command.
National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) director Christopher Scolese outlined the operational relationship between US Space Command and the NRO during a webinar hosted on August 4th by the Air Force Association's Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies . “Because it will be necessary for us to coordinate and, in some cases, take direction. And we have agreed to do that. We’re in the process of developing the strategies on how that happens, and when it happens, and under what situations it happens,” Air Force Magazine quotes Scolese as saying. “For the most part, it’s a coordination effort, but it sometimes will be, ‘Hey, you need to do this.’ And we will do that.” Defense One notes that NSO and Space Command concluded a 'protect and defend' agreement in 2019, but that the two organizations are still working out the details: "U.S. Space Command and the NRO agreed to a “protect and defend” framework in 2019 that Chief of Space Operations Gen. Jay Raymond said at the time outlined that “when a threat is imminent, the NRO will execute direction from U.S. Space Command to take protective and defensive actions to safeguard their space assets.”
National Reconnaissance Office and US Air Force look to expand use of commercial services.
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is planning to expand its commercial satellite partnerships, the Federal News Network reports. :The Director of the NRO, Christopher Scolese, says that partnerships with commercial satellite services allow the agency to focus tightly on development of critical spy satellite capabilities that can’t be found elsewhere. “We are looking for more commercial services, where we kind of have a motto of ‘Buy what we can, build what we must. What it comes down to is the commercial market has really grown and, and we’re seeing a lot of capability out there that the commercial companies are providing, that gives us an opportunity to acquire data that’s needed by the [intelligence] community at a lower cost.” In May, the NRO expanded its commercial imagery capabilities by awarding three contracts to Blacksky, Maxar and Planet, where Maxar had previously been the sole provider of the capabilities.
A move toward increased use of commercially available services isn’t confined to NRO alone. That organization and the US Air Force have reached an informal agreement to work together on getting future intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) information to battlefield commanders, which could potentially lead to co-funded projects between the two agencies, Breaking Defense reports. Air Force secretary Frank Kendall said in a speech at the Potomac Officers Club, “We are going to co-fund some things, I think,” he said. “We’re going to try to meld those two parts together in a way which satisfies both operations and intelligence [needs]. So, that’s a work in progress. We’ve got a ways to go there.”
The NRO referred Breaking Defense’s inquiries to Kendall’s office about his comments, but a spokesperson for the agency said in an email to the publication, “The NRO provides spaced-based ISR assets that meet the strategic and tactical requirements of its customers. The NRO currently supports DoD space-based ISR needs through a diversified architecture of government and commercial systems, and stands ready to support its partners as new DoD space-based ISR requirements are identified. NRO’s relationships with the USAF and USSF have never been stronger and more cooperative, and we value the confidence they have in us as the world’s leader in space-based ISR for more than 60 years.”
Russian combat space operations.
The two most prominent consequences for space operations of Russia's war against Ukraine have been, at the tactical level, Russian cyberattacks against Viasat modems, and, at the policy level, Russia's announced intention to withdraw from the International Space Station (ISS). Russia claims it will have a Wired points out some additional potential consequences. As the military use of commercial space services increases, those satellite constellations and their ground stations will become increasingly attractive targets for both cyber and kinetic attack. Spacelcom reports that Kosmos 2558 (launched on August 1st) is an inspector satellite that's shadowing a "high-value" US reconnaissance satellite. NBC News quotes US Space Command chief General James Dickinson as describing the shadowing as "really irresponsible behavior." General Dickinson added, "We see that it's in a similar orbit to one of our high-value assets for the U.S. government. And so we'll continue like we always do, to continue to update that and track that."
The CyberWire's continuing coverage of the unfolding crisis in Ukraine may be found here.
US Defense Business Board recommends making Defense Mentor-Protege Program permanent.
The Defense Business Board is recommending that the Department of Defense’s Mentor-Protege Program (MPP) be made permanent after a few tweaks, the Federal News Network reports. The program has been continually renewed for the past thirty years as a pilot program. The Director of the DoD’s Office of Small Business Programs, Farooq Mitha, called small business involvement in the Pentagon is more important than ever, pinpointing a need to counter adversaries such as China and Russia. Small business contracts are declining with the DoD, as the agency’s extra security measures and oversight are hard for smaller businesses to navigate.
The Defense Business Board (DBB) highlighted in a report the success of the MPP program for helping smaller businesses work with the DoD via larger businesses. “The annual protégé surveys from the Defense Contract Management Agency for 2012 to 2021 show significant increases in revenues, contract awards, and employment at the protégé firms. In addition, over half of all of the MPP’s 1,200 former protégés continue to serve as suppliers to the DoD and represent approximately 5% of DoD’s $83.4 billion in small business contracting,” the report reads.
The DBB also says that better data records need to be kept on the program and that it should be moved from a two-year duration to three, saying in their report that, “The two-year duration is not sufficient to consistently enable the protégé to develop the skills necessary to independently become a direct supplier to the DoD. The Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy reported that small businesses fail at a disproportionately high rate, with nearly a third failing within the first two years of operation and over 50% failing within the first five years. The three-year duration will provide the greatest opportunity for the protégé to benefit from its work with the mentor and position itself for longer term success as a DoD supplier.”
SBIR, STTR changes may be coming.
In news about other programs widely used by small businesses conducting defense and aerospace research, there's sentiment in US Congress to revise the SBIR and STTR programs with the aim of introducing more accountability into the way the programs are managed. Lawmakers are proposing major structural changes to the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) federally-funded Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfers (STTR) programs, BreakingDefense reports. The Department of Defense is a major user of the program, which was established in 1982 and expires September 30th of this year. NASA, NOAA and other relevant agencies also use the program.
Congress believes there’s an issue with businesses transitioning between phases, especially with some technology falling into the “valley of death” between Phase II and Phase III. BreakingDefense writes, “In the first proposal, the Senate Small Business Committee would restrict eligibility to the SBIR/STTR programs based on the total number of awards received from the inception of the program. The second proposal, also from the committee, would restrict eligibility to the programs based on the number of awards received over a five-year period. In the third proposal, the House Small Business Committee restricts eligibility based on enhanced requirements associated with the existing Phase I to Phase II transition rate and the Phase III commercialization benchmarks.” These proposals are apparently motivated by Congressional sentiment that some companies are SBIR shops – they get grants, do research, and move to the next phase without transitioning their technology to a product that meets an operational or a business need. The Department of Defense (which makes heavy use of SBIR in its science and technology programs) doesn’t much care for the Senate proposals, but believes it could live with the modification the House proposed.
The goal of the SBIR program is to tap into the innovative potential of small businesses. SBIR awards coming in three phases. The first two are funding phases, with the third involving support for commercialization and sales. The Department of Commerce, which has overall responsibility for the program, says that a business is eligible to apply for an award if:
- It’s “organized for profit, with a place of business located in the United States”
- If it’s “more than 50% owned and controlled by one or more individuals who are citizens or permanent resident aliens of the United States, or by other small business concerns that are each more than 50% owned and controlled by one or more individuals who are citizens or permanent resident aliens of the United States”
- If the business has “no more than 500 employees, including affiliates.”
The awards are large enough to be of interest to a start-up. “As of November 2021, agencies may issue a Phase I award (including modifications) up to $275,766 and a Phase II award (including modifications) up to $1,838,436 without seeking SBA approval. Any award above those levels will require a waiver.”
There are eligibility requirements for Federal agencies as well. “Each year, Federal agencies with extramural research and development (R&D) budgets that exceed $100 million are required to allocate 3.2% (since FY2017) of this extramural R&D budget to fund small businesses through the SBIR program.” This means that agencies with substantial R&D budgets from which they issue grants and contracts for research to business, universities, and not-for-profits will run an SBIR program.
Search the current SBIR topics to see what the agencies are interested in funding.