Space defense officials identify pitfalls for moving forward with new capabilities

While the so-called "valley of death" often refers to the difficulties in transitioning innovative technologies to a program of record, an official with the Space Enterprise Consortium sees moving from research and development into prototyping as the bigger risk thus far to the relatively new organization.

Maj. Adam Burnetta, SpEC program manager, during a Feb. 10 AFCEA NOVA Space Force IT Day, pointed to hang-ups in the R&D-to-prototyping pipeline, as Small Business Innovation Research recipients look to transition beyond that program.

“I see that kind of valley of death regularly because I have companies that come to me and they'll say, ‘Hey, we're doing SBIR awards. We know that the government's interested in this. Where's the prototyping line built for this? Is there a prototyping requirement coming down for this capability that could use this technology?’” Burnetta recalled.

Contributing to the challenge is that officials “don’t do a great job of crossing those wires and making sure that SBIR investment is lined up with a prototyping budget or a prototyping plan of action,” he added.

“We don’t have a good solution for it at this time,” he said.

Despite those roadblocks, Brig. Gen. Steven Butow, the Defense Innovation Unit’s space portfolio director, said his unit focuses on bringing in entities that may have a significant commercial market presence but have never aligned with DOD.

For example, he said during Thursday’s panel discussion, DIU first identifies a problem such as a hybrid space architecture, then goes to “industry big and small” to find solutions.

In acting as that intermediary “to help bring in nontraditional” entities, Butow noted officials are able to cast a wide net as they look to help the military in solving “new, emerging problems.”

Pursuing those nontraditional partnerships also aligns with the Space Force’s own efforts, while Heidi Shyu, the Pentagon’s technology chief, said in January that DOD wants more congressional authority to dole out SBIR funds in multiple tranches over time.

SpEC, first established in 2017 and created as an Other Transaction Authority, centers its work around “a lot of software prototyping” -- an approach Burnetta said fits in well with the broader Space Force and Air Force development culture, where officials are “a lot more open to engaging . . . without the requirement being fully defined.”

“Not to downplay the hardware side of things, but I think software is a little closer to what we want,” he said. “I think we're doing a better job at it in terms of writing requirements and engaging with industry.”