WASHINGTON \u2014 The Space Force now has put into place all of its mission-focused acquisition portfolios, including offices dedicated to space control and orbital warfare, according to the top space acquisition officer. <\/p>\n
Tom Ainsworth, who is performing the duties of the Air Force assistant secretary for Space Acquisition and Integration, told the annual McAleese Defense Programs Conference today that while the department is \u201cstill working through the detail of which programs specifically go into each one,\u201d the final seven portfolio acquisition executive (PAE) offices now are being put in place.<\/p>\n
All totaled, there will be nine PAEs, which are designed to implement the\u00a0wide-ranging reforms<\/a>\u00a0in how the Pentagon buys weapon systems championed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. <\/p>\n The first two Space Force PAEs, Space Access and Space Based Sensing and Targeting, were announced in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n Of the seven new PAEs mentioned by Ainsworth today, only four have been officially established according to a Space Force press release today<\/a>:<\/p>\n Missile Warning and Tracking \u2014 responsible for constellations across all orbital regimes, according to Ainsworth. This includes, he said, low Earth orbit satellites, which now fall under programs managed by the Space Development Agency.<\/p>\n Infrastructure \u2014 responsible for \u201cdelivering data management, Space Force training and test capabilities, and personnel management capabilities,\u201d according to the Space Force press release.<\/p>\n Battle Management, Command and Control, Communications and Space Intelligence \u2014 responsible for \u201cdata, networks, C2, intelligence and space domain awareness to detect, characterize, attribute, anticipate and target activities,\u201d according to the press release.<\/p>\n Satellite Communication and Position, Navigation & Timing \u2014 responsible for managing both military and commercial programs in each of those two mission areas. <\/p>\n Ainsworth mentioned three other PAE categories not included in the Space Force announcement, which he said cover Space Control; Electronic Warfare, Cyber Warfare and Orbital Warfare; and Integration. <\/p>\n He explained that the Integration PAE would serve the \u201cchief engineer function and \u2026 overall enterprise system architect function\u201d \u2014 focused on new technologies that cross-cut the other PAEs, as well as commercial innovation. <\/p>\n In addition, he said, the Integration PAE will be the focal point for maturing tech for new mission areas, including in the near term cislunar activities.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have a final plan for it yet, but specifically coming out of the president\u2019s Executive Order for Space Superiority<\/a>, we do need to begin integrating cislunar capability into the Space Force, and so we are serious about that,\u201d Ainsworth said. \u201cWe are going to be standing on leadership positions and integration points where we can start bringing that those technologies in and actually have a plan to execute them going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n He noted that as the service moves out on developing cislunar capabilities, it will partner with NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory to bring forward promising technologies. <\/p>\n