Space Systems Command chief backs ‘important’ work of Space Development Agency

Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant speaks during a Department of the Air Force worship service at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Sept. 10, 2023. (U.S. Air Force/Eric Dietrich)

AFA WARFARE 2025 — The head of the Space Force’s main acquisition arm expressed full confidence in the Space Development Agency (SDA) on Monday, offering support for both the entity’s work as well as its independent status within the service.

“I think it’s fantastic work. It’s continuing. It’s important,” Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, commander of the Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC), said in a Monday roundtable with reporters at the AFA Warfare conference in Aurora, Colo. “And I think the Space Development Agency will continue to be an incredibly important part of the Space Force, independent and completely separate from SSC.”

Originally established outside the Space Force by reporting directly to the Pentagon’s research and development office, SDA was required by Congress to transfer into the Space Force in 2022, but has maintained its quasi-independent status. However, as Breaking Defense first reported, the Trump administration is reviewing whether SDA should be more fully rolled into the Space Force acquisition system.

SDA also finds itself at an awkward place, as its leader, Derek Tournear, is currently suspended while being investigated over whether he improperly steered a contract to a preferred company — something that led to Garrant briefly serving as SDA’s acting head before being replaced.

Despite all that, Garrant was clear he has been impressed with the work SDA has done. “They have demonstrated, I’ll call them inter- and intra-constellation crosslinks, which is pretty amazing when you think about how quickly they did that,” he said. 

SDA is currently developing a low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation that can transport data around the world, using a so-called “mesh” network that relies on laser communications links between satellites. And the agency’s approach has drawn concerns from the Government Accountability Office, which found in a February watchdog report that SDA has yet to prove the technology is viable. Asked about the report’s findings, Garrant said making sure the laser links — otherwise known as optical communications — work will be critical for the Space Force’s orbital architecture to function.

“Optical crosslinks are important to all of our constellations, not just in LEO but between orbital regimes as well. When you contemplate moving data at operationally relevant speeds, we’re going to need to be able to do that. We’re going to have to be able to do it between constellations as well,” he said. “So it’s a critical area that will get the attention that the GAO is pointing out.”

DOGE Cuts and ‘Space Control’ Priority

The Elon Musk led DOGE effort to cut the federal workforce has been hitting agencies across the government, and Garrant said SSC has not been spared of large workforce cuts.

“A considerable number of SSC employees” took the deferred resignation plan offered to federal workers, according to the general, who added that there are a “number” of probationary employees at the command whose easier-to-fire status has made them a favorite target of DOGE’s workforce cuts. Garrant said officials are working to quickly off-ramp employees, as well as ensure essential work remains covered. 

Garrant additionally said SSC will play its part to contribute to a budget drill ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that seeks to shift roughly eight percent of DoD funding to new priorities.

In a separate roundtable with reporters Monday, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said the Space Force’s options for the budget drill essentially amounted to time and capacity, meaning that projects could be delayed or fewer systems could be fielded for the same mission in order to save money. 

“I think that there is a recognition that we have a new mission, and the new mission comes with new resources. It’s just about how much of those resources you get, how fast you get it,” Saltzman replied when asked what areas the Space Force may have to pull back in. “I haven’t really seen a push to give up anything. It’s more about capacity and timeliness” for certain programs, he added.

And as the Space Force jostles for funds under Hegseth’s new approach, Saltzman made his priority clear in a keynote address to the AFA conference on Monday. The Space Force, Saltzman said, must establish “space superiority,” including by exercising “space control” — protection of friendly space assets and denying adversaries the ability to use their own space capabilities — by degrading, disrupting or even destroying enemy satellite systems if necessary.  

“Space control is a new function for our fledgling service and it’s my No. 1 priority whenever I speak to executive and legislative leaders, because we currently don’t have the resources to perform it as effectively as the Joint Force requires,” Saltzman said.