Derek Tournear, director of the Space Development Agency, wrote an article explaining whether industry’s reluctance to compete for fixed-price contracts affects SDA’s business model.
In a LinkedIn article published Wednesday, he said that it does not affect the agency’s business model because SDA relies on a “healthy supplier base” to provide ground systems and satellites for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture designed to deliver space capabilities to warfighters.
He shared his thoughts on SDA’s two key pillars: proliferation and spiral development.
“SDA’s commitment to compete every layer of every tranche helps create this robust and diverse marketplace,” Tournear wrote. “SDA has also been very vocal and transparent – we will utilize fixed price contracts to incentivize speed and technical maturity in bids.”
The SDA chief noted that the agency’s business model focuses on schedule. By requiring order to orbit in about 30 months, the prime contractor is forced to focus on mature technologies, enabling them to implement a low-risk technical approach.
Tournear, a previous Wash100 awardee, also discussed the advantages of locking the contractor into a single tranche over a three-year period and competing each capability each time to vendors and SDA.
“SDA will continue to rely on fixed price contracts as we compete every layer for every tranche, and we look forward to continuing our strong partnership with industry so that they will continue to deliver the PWSA to give the warfighter the capabilities they need, and on time!” he added.
SDA Director Derek Tournear will deliver a keynote at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Space Summit on March 5. Register here to hear Tournear and other government leaders, industry executives and other experts discuss the latest space technologies, commercial investments and urgent issues facing the space domain.