The Space Force has one company on its “contractor watch list,” a senior official said today, showing that the service is holding industry accountable for missing performance, cost or schedule promises.
Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, commander of Space Systems Command, wouldn’t name the company when he spoke Thursday morning at a Defense Writers Group breakfast but said it is a company that holds significant contracts.
“I will say the tool has absolutely worked as intended,” he said. “We’ve seen significant improvement in performance and attention at the most senior levels of the corporation.”
Space Force acquisition chief Frank Calvelli resurrected the contractor watch list as a way to drive discipline amid a wash of companies he saw as poor performers that couldn’t meet the needs of contracts they bid for.
Essentially a scarlet letter for businesses, the watch list is circulated among Defense Department acquirers to warn of past broken promises with the names of businesses. When first speaking about the watch list for the Space Force in January 2023, Calvelli suggested it could also be shared with congressional committees as a semi-public shaming.
The fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act laid out criteria for placing contractors on a watch list, including poor performance or award fees scored below 50%, financial concerns, felony convictions or civil judgements, security problems or foreign ownership and control issues.
Calvelli has been vocal about disciplining DOD and industry if the contracts they sign aren’t met, which Garrant said he has followed.
“In my tenure, we have relieved program managers that work for me, holding them accountable,” Garrant said.
“I would offer that removing one of the industry partners was holding them accountable,” Garrant added, referring to the removal of RTX from the Missile Track Custody Epoch 1 program.
In May, SSC booted RTX from the effort, which aims to put a constellation of missile warning/missile tracking satellites in medium-Earth orbit, after missing requirements it was on contract for. Particularly, the RTX satellites were becoming more costly, the launch time frame had to be delayed and there were “unresolved design challenges,” a spokesperson said at the time.
To fill the gap, the other Epoch 1 contractor -- Millennium Space Systems, a subsidiary of Boeing -- will build all 12 satellites, SSC announced last month.