Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images space Can the Air Force really reform how it buys space systems? One leading industry exec is wary the effort to speed up acquisition will reap dividends

The Air Force is in the process of revamping the Space and Missile Systems Center to make its space acquisition arm more innovative and able to more rapidly introduce new capabilities after acknowledging earlier this year that its current process "creates natural barriers" to new ideas and cooperation with more partners.

It's a problem that's all too familiar to Deloitte, the largest international professional services network founded in 1845 that provides consulting, auditing and risk management services to clients, including a diverse group of commercial and governmental space organizations trying to navigate the shifting space economy.


Difficulty dealing with the Air Force's acquisition system is the top challenge the firm hears from space clients, especially many startups that can't afford to wait months to get a government contract, says Bill Beyer, a principal for defense and national security at Deloitte.

"Those startups tend to go towards the commercial side rather than the government side because you don't build a new start up off of government business," he says. "You'd be out of business if it takes 14 months to get a contract."

But Beyer, who also serves on the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration advisory board, is "suspicious" that the ongoing Air Force reorganization will usher in any real reform, questioning whether it can change the culture without bringing in new space acquisition officials.

"Are you going to get new acquisition experts? Probably not," he predicts. "So are you just changing deck chairs? What does that look like How do you change the culture without infusing new people?"

Deloitte, which counts among its space consulting clients the Commerce Department and NASA, also represents legacy space companies that are trying to figure out how to compete with the new and innovative commercial space companies.

"They're relying on us to do the litmus test, to do the due diligence on a lot of these things and then to determine how do they play with them?" he explains "How do they co-exist, or are they going to cannibalize their business?"

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Beyer talked to POLITICO about how the space community has evolved from engineering to business consulting, the future of a Space Force and ways to fill the large gap in the the space workforce.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

What does Deloitte's space mission look like?

Typically in space, we've always had the engineers — NASA engineers, [National Reconnaissance Office] engineers, operators for the communications and satellites, intelligence officers. But now, with the emergence of commercial space and the government struggling to figure out what's innately government versus commercial, you need businessmen. You need to start looking at things like governance. So where Deloitte positions itself is we literally are the business people for space.

The other thing is we've been working a lot with the larger space companies trying to understand what the new ecosystem is. You have companies like Relativity and some others that are using 3D printing to launch for $5 million. That's a big deal. Is it real? We don't know. However, [these clients] rely on us to do the litmus test, to do the due diligence on a lot of these things and then to determine how do they play with them? How do they co-exist, or are they going to cannibalize their business? So we've been very focused on where the [venture capital] money is going, whether people have been meeting their obligations, who is rising, who's falling.

Your clients are primarily government agencies and traditional space companies?

And small. We have offices in Silicon Valley, Seattle, LA, Colorado Springs, and international, too. We just did a business case for launch with Australia. New Zealand is hot with Rocket Lab. So they want us to work with them. The U.K. just called us because they're trying to do launches off of Scotland. We're getting involved in all those ecosystems and helping coordinate and work with them so there is a coordinated effort. You don't want to have a lack of strategy.

What are the biggest issues you hear from your clients?

I think [government] acquisition is probably the hardest nut to crack, and that's the one we hear most from our clients. You know they did [the reorganization of the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center]. Truth be told on that one, I'm suspicious, but let's see what happens. [Lt. Gen John] Thompson, [who leads the center,] speaks a great game as far as what it's going to do in rapid acquisition. But remember the labor force in LA [has 15 percent more jobs than people to fill them], so are you going to get new acquisition experts? Probably not. So are you just changing deck chairs? What does that look like? How do you change the culture without infusing new people?

Also, [an issue we hear is how tied in the larger companies are to the government's] acquisition cycle versus the new start ups. SpaceX has done a masterful job of injecting themselves but they also went out and hired a bunch of Air Force guys ... but you don't have that everywhere.

Startups are doing a lot of innovative thinking, but then those startups tend to go toward the commercial side rather than the government side, because you don't build a new startup off of government business. It takes too long. You'd be out of business if it takes 14 months to get a contract. So acquisition is huge.

You mentioned the shortage of space workers.

There's just not enough — not enough of the engineers, data scientists. You have Google and those types of companies out there and they're very appealing. You're fighting that labor force of SpaceX and Blue Origin. Then on top of that, you have the governmental labor force until they decide to retire from the military. Then they're gone. They used to turn around and come back into civil service. That doesn't happen as much. It's a war.

There's a lot of ways to [fix] this. You have to do early education. We're giving kids iPads at age 2, so we just have to keep that up. Then we actually have to declare it. There's only one school in the United States right now that has a business degree in space. In the health care profession, there's only I think two doctors in the entire country that actually have a space medical degree. These things have to start being pulled out and called space, because it is a different world. So really putting a focus on what is innately space and being educated in that and having career tracks on that from the time they're in high school on is great. It's not just going to Huntsville [Ala.] for Space Camp. Integrating it into a curriculum is going to be a big deal.

How might a Space Force impact the wider space community?

This is an interesting political issue. Do I think there should be a Space Force? I think there should be dedication to space. If you're going to have an offensive and defensive posture, I do believe there has to be a separate force that deals with that. Satellites are different and [low earth orbit] is different. If you start to get beyond that, what are the commercial implications of militarizing space?

At the same time, if you're doing things like mining in space and you spend billions of dollars on an asteroid you're mining and all of a sudden a Russian rocket comes along and starts mining beside you, what are the protocols that go into that? And who is actually going to police that? Those are real issues that have to be dealt with. Whether that's a Space Force or something else, I absolutely believe that in today's world we have to have a clear career path for space experts, which I don't think was as clear in the past in certain agencies and certain services.

