Executive Mosaic’s flagship GovCon Wire will bring together top space acquisition experts from the government and industry at a Jan. 19 virtual forum to offer insight into the Defense Department’s priorities and modernization efforts in the space domain.
David Ray, senior vice president of operations and lead for the space business unit at Science Applications International Corp., will moderate a panel discussion during the Space Acquisition Forum.
He was appointed to lead SAIC’s space segment in March as part of a reorganization effort that merged its civilian, defense and intelligence space operations into a single organization. His industry career includes time as president of FLIR Systems’ government and defense unit, various leadership positions of increasing authority at Raytheon and as a senior management consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton.
Government leaders invited to join the panel include Laura DeSimone, executive director of the Missile Defense Agency; Michael Roberts, director and program executive officer for the Space Rapid Capabilities Office; Derek Tournear, director of the Space Development Agency, and Johnathon Caldwell, vice president of business innovation transformation and enterprise excellence at Lockheed Martinâs space business.
Roberts told Via Satellite in an interview that rapid acquisition of cutting-edge technology is not a one-size-fits-all model and his office’s mission is to develop operational capability that will address time-sensitive requirements.
Tournear, the first permanent director of SDA and a 2021 Wash100 Award recipient, discussed the role of domestic industry in efforts to help SDA meet agency goals in his keynote speech at the Potomac Officers Club’s March 4 virtual forum.
SDA issued a draft solicitation Dec. 6 for an âother transactionâ prototyping effort to develop Tranche 1 Transport Layer, which the agency says will support warfighter data transport communications via a mesh network of optically interconnected satellites and serve as space backbone for DOD’s Joint All Domain Command and Control strategy.
One week later, the agency sought ideas from industry for how to establish a software factory that could support the battle management, command, control and communications module of T1TL satellites.
