Frank Calvelli: DOD Needs to Improve Procurement Strategy

A U.S. Air Force acquisition official said the Department of Defense needs to improve how it creates its requirements list to ensure that technology procurement would become more efficient.

Speaking at the Professional Services Council’s 2023 Defense Conference, Frank Calvelli, assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration, shared that he listed several procurement reforms for space programs and has directed the U.S. Space Force to take advantage of commercially available technologies to speed up innovation. Calvelli, a past Potomac Officers Club speaker, said the Pentagon’s procurement culture poses roadblocks to rapid innovation because of the department’s reliance on legacy technologies and programs of record.

Calvelli said it could be better to bundle requirements into a single portfolio and decide if specific items could be procured commercially. He shared that the framework could be used for space domain awareness and satellite communications, SpaceNews reported.

Calvelli’s comments are in line with the agenda he introduced in January. At the start of 2023, he stated that one of his near-term goals was to use a new procurement strategy for the Tranche 0 Transport Layer. He also talked about the benefits of fixed-price contracts for procuring small satellites and commercial capabilities.