Air Force Space Command’s Agile Acquisition Transformation Leadership Award for 2007

Kudos to the Space and Missile System Center’s Alternative Infrared Space Systems (AIRSS)/Third Generation Infrared Surveillance (3GIRS) team who won the Air Force Space Command’s Agile Acquisition Transformation Leadership Award for 2007. What does this mean, exactly? The Agile Acquisition Transformation Leadership Award recognizes the application of the Back to Basics approach in order to mature and integrate technologies, and acknowledges skill in acquisition program management and leadership. The results create acquisition process transformation. The main issue that has proved valuable is to remember lessons from earlier years. By developing technology outside of a traditional Program Office in a competitive developmental environment, using the already proven technologies, the risks to formal acquisitions are usually reduced, significantly so.

The word came down from the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD)/Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technologies and Logistics (AT&L) who mandated that the Alternative Infrared Space System (AIRSS) program be replanned. The new program was to act as insurance against further difficulties with the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) GEO satellites and to transition into becoming a low risk and affordable follow-on to SBIRS. The program was renamed the Third Generation Infrared Surveillance (3GIRS) to reflect this replan in August of 2007.

Much took place within the year. The AIRSS/3GIRS team executed a 180-day study with comprehensive collaboration across 11 government organizations and nine industry partners. This new team established requirements for the SBIRS follow-on next generation system, developed conceptual space and ground designs, and provided a roadmap for system architecture. They also began an innovative acquisition strategy for risk reduction and focused on key efforts to shorten the development time. The Integrated Test Bed (ITB) program was implemented to help initiate the industry’s Internal Research and Development (IRAD) activities by identifying key trigger technologies that increase performance of the system. A radically pumped-up efficiency plan that ensures on-budget and on-schedule project delivery.

The Space and Missile Systems Center is the U.S. Air Force’s center for acquiring and developing military space systems including six wings and three groups responsible for GPS, military satellite communications, defense meteorological satellites, space launch and range systems, satellite control network, space based infrared systems, intercontinental ballistic missile systems and space situational awareness capabilities. SMC manages more than $60 billion in contracts, executes annual budgets of $10 billion and employs more than 6,800 people worldwide— Los Angeles Air Force Base, El Segundo, California