U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) expects to release a final solicitation on the Hemisphere program on Oct. 31 and to award a contract next March 8.
SSC plans to pursue task orders for Advisory and Assistance Services under the Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract to aid SSC’s Space Domain Awareness and Combat Power (SSC/SZ) and Battle Management, Command, Control, and Communications (SSC/BC) program executive offices in unclassified and classified weapons’ development and sustainment (Defense Daily, Aug. 31).
The draft RfP contains a pricing matrix with 116 positions, most of them engineers and acquisition specialists in El Segundo, Calif., Colorado Springs; and the Pentagon.
Those positions look to be linked to task order work for SSC’s Space Domain Awareness and Combat Power program executive office. Another six possible task orders are in the draft RfP, including 170 more for SSC/SZ, 84 positions under SSC/BC, and Battle Management Command Control and Communications program executive office at SSC, 46 front office support positions, and seven under Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration Frank Calvelli. The total number of positions possible under the task orders is 424, and 391 require a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance.
The draft RfP said that Hemisphere work will occur in El Segundo, where SSC is looking for a contractor to provide two Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIFs) or Special Access Program Facilities (SAPFs); Colorado Springs; Albuquerque, Dayton, Ohio; Destin, Fla.; Las Vegas; Reston, Va., Vandenberg Space Force Base Calif., Chantilly, Va., and the Washington, D.C. area
The Hemisphere draft RfP issued on Oct. 3 contains a Performance Work Statement (PWS) that says that Hemisphere “requires personnel with experience and an in-depth understanding of the environments that include ground, near-space, space, and any system that operates in those environments.”
“SSC/SZ-BC provides highly classified Space Domain Awareness systems, defensive and offensive space control capabilities, and space test range assets to meet current and projected Department of Defense operational requirements,” according to the PWS. “SSC/SZ-BC develops, integrates, tests, deploys, sustains, and supports operations for systems that meet strategic and tactical operational needs. SSC provides unrivaled space systems to ensure survival for both the United States Space Force and our nation. These systems span the entire acquisition life cycle. This contract will support multiple SSC/SZ-BC programs, as well as various other Space Force, Air Force, and mission partner programs.”
SSC has said that 300 full-time employees from multiple contractors are working on efforts similar to Hemisphere, but has declined to name the incumbents.
More than 30 companies, including
Science Applications International Corp. [SAIC], Booz Allen Hamilton [BAH], BlueHalo, Parsons Corp. [PSN] and KBR, Inc.‘s [KBR] KBR Wyle Services, LLC., participated in a Hemisphere industry day on Feb. 28.
DoD leaders have been pushing to increase the resilience of space systems, in part by moving toward using a large number of low Earth orbit and medium Earth orbit satellites and away from the acquisition of a limited number of large, costly satellites–“big, fat, juicy targets” in the words of retired Vice Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. John Hyten (Defense Daily, May 18, 2022).
“The very fabric that we operate our space capabilities within is vulnerable to attack and ill-suited for a warfighting domain,” said Charles Galbreath, a senior resident fellow for space studies at the Mitchell Institute for Space Studies and the author of a recent institute paper, Building U.S. Space Force Counterspace Capabilities: An Imperative for America’s Defense. “The Space Surveillance Network [and] the Satellite Control Network—both have significant gaps and do not provide 100 percent connectivity or awareness of threats in space all the time. Neither one of these is actually suited for the warfighting domain of space.”