Res Communis

NRO Report on the Space Industrial Base

by P.J. Blount with the blog faculty

The Department of Commerce Office Of Space Commercialization points to an National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) report on the Space Industrial Base that was submitted to Congress earlier this month. The executive summary of the unclassified portion states:

Executive Summary

As requested by the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee for Defense, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has completed a study on second and third-tier space supplier health, and submits findings in the following report. Comparable challenges that affect first-tier vendors more drastically affect smaller second and third-tier vendors. Many of these smaller vendors have an insufficiently diverse business to easily accommodate changes in schedule, funding, or requirements for unique, low-production items. These challenges have significantly reduced the domestic supplier base. The limited supplier base may compromise long-term availability of some critical components and can negatively affect current program schedules. Current technology availability risks and impacts are described as are specific examples.

Current resources and specific authorities have been considered in the space industrial base issue. Mitigating factors exist and are described supporting critical supply chain issues that threaten to have a significant negative impact on programs or space agencies. The current indirect process does not provide the National Security Space (NSS) community the necessary rigor for identifying and addressing critical and at-risk technologies. The NSS requires a much more efficient process to quickly detect problems and identify solutions in critical situations that will positively impact the current space industrial and supplier base (ISB).