Plenty of good technology dies in the gap between a working prototype and a signed contract. The Space Force has created a small office to shorten that stretch.
Erich Hernandez-Baquero, the assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration, will oversee it directly. The new Technology Portfolio Executive carries the same weight as the service’s portfolio acquisition executives, but its job is different.
The service plans nine of those executives, each running a mission area end to end from development through retirement. Hernandez-Baquero said that scope leaves them little room to hunt for novel capabilities, which is what the new office is for. It has no single mission area, instead scanning a broad field of research and commercial work to push technology toward prototyping.
He called the target the valley of death, the place where companies cannot find a way into a program of record. The office will help industry map routes into its own product lines and give the acquisition executives what they need to offer on-ramps.
The office is already standing, and the service is looking for someone to run it.
