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In August, United States Space Force procurement chief Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy toured Blue Origin’s Alabama factory, where BE-4 rocket engines are being built for next-generation launch vehicles. He also visited Northwood Space, a California-based startup building next-generation antennas to move satellite data faster. In September, he toured Vast Space’s Long Beach headquarters, where engineers are developing a commercial space station.
These visits by Purdy and other military officials are meant to size up the commercial space sector’s progress firsthand, and how their work might fit national security needs.
“Military buyers can’t just stay in their offices and write requirements,” Purdy told defense executives at a Washington, D.C., conference. “We need to understand the cutting edge and figure out how to make it work for the warfighter.”
Purdy, who is acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration, is trying to help the newest military branch do something the Pentagon has struggled with for decades: buy faster, cheaper and smarter.
Now, a mix of executive orders, new contracting approaches and closer ties between defense leaders and investors has some experts believing this latest reform drive may be different from the past.
Reform by necessity
The outreach to the private sector comes as the Pentagon is scrambling to overhaul its ossified procurement system.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order pressing the department to expand its use of commercial technology. Congress is weighing companion legislation, including the House’s SPEED Act, which would cut red tape for defense programs, and the Senate’s FORGED Act, designed to shorten production cycles and incentivize domestic suppliers.
Even more dramatic was the Pentagon’s recent decision to scrap the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS), a labyrinthine requirements process notorious for delaying programs by years. In its place: a more decentralized framework that gives combatant commanders more influence.
“These aren’t just paper reforms,” said retired Maj. Gen. Roger Teague, a former Air Force director of space acquisitions now advising commercial firms. “This is change that we haven’t seen before. Now the foot is off the brake and the foot is on the gas pedal.”
Teague knows firsthand the problems that have plagued military space acquisitions. At the Pentagon in the 1990s, he worked on the $20 billion SBIRS (Space Based Infrared System) satellite program, a missile-warning geostationary constellation. SBIRS spiraled into a case study of Pentagon dysfunction: technical overreach, contractor delays and cost overruns so severe they amounted to a so-called Nunn-McCurdy breach — the legal trigger for a formal review of whether to cancel a program. Cancellation was politically impossible — the satellites’ missile detection mission was too critical — so the Pentagon doubled down. SBIRS finally launched in 2011, nearly a decade late and billions over budget.
The Pentagon should never have to experience another SBIRS-like satellite development, Teague said. “The Space Force can now innovate using commercial technology.”
Momentum in Washington
The urgency for change comes amid a broader Pentagon-wide reform push that has gained momentum during the Trump administration.
“The zeitgeist of the times is that reform is coming,” said Adm. Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “It’s all about trying to shorten those timelines.”
Michael Duffey, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, echoed the sentiment. “We’re certainly in the middle of a change environment,” he told a recent National Defense Industrial Association conference. He noted that a “flurry of executive orders” and bipartisan legislation are all aimed at one thing: speed.
The Space Force, with a $40 billion fiscal 2026 request fueled by the Golden Dome missile-defense program, has an opportunity to prove it can accelerate its acquisitions.
Golden Dome, a planned layered system of defenses to protect the U.S. from long-range missile threats, would require potentially hundreds of satellites for missile tracking sensors, space-based interceptors, and command-and-control networks.
“For us, it’s incredibly important to focus on that speed piece,” Purdy said. “I expect to see satellites built in a month, and then not too long after that, I might expect them to be built in a couple of days.”
Two current satellite procurements potentially worth several hundred million dollars illustrate the military pivot to commercial space technologies.
The RG-XX program — short for Geosynchronous Reconnaissance & Surveillance — is designed to replace the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program satellites that track objects some 35,000 kilometers above Earth. Instead of commissioning a handful of bespoke satellites, the Space Force plans to buy fleets of smaller spacecraft from multiple vendors. Purdy said more than 150 companies have expressed interest to participate in RG-XX, underscoring how far the commercial satellite sector has matured.
Another program known as PTS-G (Protected Tactical Satcom-Global) is the first major military communications system deliberately structured to incorporate commercial satellites in geostationary orbit. Rather than select a single prime contractor and create a monopoly, the Space Force has set up a flexible 15-year contract vehicle allowing multiple companies to compete for production slots.
Both RG-XX and PTS-G embrace a proliferated model: many satellites, built quickly, by more than one supplier. The logic is redundancy. If one satellite is disabled in orbit, dozens more can pick up the slack.
Learning from launch contracts
The Space Force views the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program as its most successful competitive procurement of commercial space services. The program procures launch services from commercial providers such as SpaceX and United Launch Alliance. The latest round of NSSL, known as Phase 3, carves out a lane for new entrants such as Blue Origin. Once a company proves its rocket works, it can bid for missions immediately instead of waiting years for the next contract cycle.
“There was a criticism in the past that we would lock out competitors for multiple years,” Purdy said. By changing the rules, he argued, the Pentagon is putting real contracts in reach of fledgling rocket makers — which helps them to raise venture capital.
That same model, Purdy suggested, could apply to the procurement of weather data, ground systems and other niche areas where small firms can compete if given a clear path to revenue. “We’re moving to a model where multiple companies are going to be winners in the end game.”
Beyond satellites and launch services, the Space Force is also investing in infrastructure that can open doors for startups.
The Operational Test & Training Infrastructure (OTTI) program will build a virtual sandbox where companies can plug in prototypes and demonstrate how their systems would work under combat conditions. Space Force leaders requested more than $400 million for the program for fiscal year 2025. Purdy calls it critical for giving young firms a chance to prove themselves in a realistic setting.
In addition, ground systems are another opportunity for commercial innovation. The Pentagon’s Satellite Control Network, a patchwork of government-owned antennas, is decades old and overstretched. Northwood Space and other startups are betting the military will outsource some of that demand to cloud-enabled commercial ground stations.
“The government’s acquisition hasn’t been fast enough,” said Griffin Cleverly, Northwood’s co-founder. Purdy’s visit, he said, was a signal. “He wants industry to move fast, and he wants the acquisition system to meet us on the other end.”
Vast, the space station developer Purdy visited in Long Beach, believes commercial infrastructure could one day provide the backbone for a U.S. military presence in space.
The company’s CEO Max Haot said there is a case to be made that Space Force guardians should have a base in orbit as a deterrent and to establish a presence.
Supply chain risks
The Space Force’s plans for rapid innovation, however, hinge on an industrial base that is both financially sound and broad enough to support those aspirations, Teague warned.
Private investment in the space industry has reached extraordinary levels over the past decade, with more than $65 billion flowing into space startups between 2015 and 2024 according to the industry tracking firm BryceTech. Nevertheless, the lower tiers of the supply chain remain fragile, Teague noted. The companies that manufacture specialized components often operate on thin margins with limited access to the venture capital that has fueled headline-grabbing space startups. Teague said that sub-tier suppliers might struggle to secure the funding needed to expand production, even as demand from the Space Force’s proliferated constellations surges.
In addition, Teague said he encourages small business suppliers to seek financing options such as the Office of Strategic Capital, which uses tools like loan guarantees to boost commercial firms making technologies with national security applications. The Space Force’s plans to leverage the commercial sector are “dependent upon a healthy U.S. industrial base, and I think that’s something that is going to have to be examined very closely,” he said.
Partnering with venture capital
Another novelty in the Space Force’s playbook: outreach to venture capital firms. Purdy said he has encouraged program managers to meet with investors to understand which startups are gaining traction and to signal which technologies the Pentagon wants developed.
One result has been a wave of Strategic Funding Increase, or STRATFI, agreements.
These are contracts typically worth about $30 million that blend government funding with private investment to bridge the so-called “valley of death” between prototypes and production. Companies must put in their own money, ensuring both sides have skin in the game.
This is a partnership that helps everyone, Purdy said. “We learn from the VCs, and they learn from us.”
For startups, the Space Force represents both opportunity and uncertainty. “Many of the new entrants are learning how to do business with the Space Force,” said Teague, who runs the consultancy Elara Nova. “At the same time, traditional contractors are having to learn how to do business under these new commercial models. It’s no longer going to be traditional programs of record.”
Purdy insists that none of these reforms now under way will work unless the Pentagon keeps its side of the bargain. “Don’t lead industry on with a bunch of RFIs [requests for information] when we actually don’t have any plan or money behind that,” he told his acquisition officers. “If we’re going to be a reliable partner, it has to come with contracts and money laid out.”
A new opportunity for change
For all the talk of reform, Pentagon veterans like Duffey note that similar promises have come and gone. Since the Cold War, he noted, dozens of acquisition reform efforts have died in committee or been smothered by bureaucracy.
This time may be different because the threats are more concerning. China and Russia are fielding anti-satellite weapons. Commercial constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink have shown how proliferated networks can survive wartime disruption. And the U.S. industrial base is flush with private capital chasing space ventures, eager for government contracts.
“I really believe we are in a moment where we can truly change how we acquire systems,” Purdy said. “It’s all about schedule, performance and cost.”
The challenge will be sustaining momentum. If Congress waters down reform bills or if the Pentagon reverts to its cautious habits, the window could close.
But for now, Purdy is pressing his officers to get out of the office, into factories and onto venture capital pitch decks. “Every six months, you’ve got to get out to see the industry,” he said. “The pace of technology, the pace of companies popping out of stealth mode is amazing.”
Teague agrees. “The Space Force is creating massive opportunities for companies,” he said. “The U.S. industry needs to rally around them. This is a significant opportunity to make a difference for the nation.”
This article first appeared in the October 2025 issue of SpaceNews Magazine.
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