Supply chain disruptions impacting satellite programs, initially attributed to the pandemic, are now revealing deeper vulnerabilities within the U.S. defense industrial base.

“I would say coming out of COVID, we thought a lot of these supply chain issues were COVID issues. And I think what we’re realizing is it’s probably more than COVID — there are true industrial base concerns,” Space Systems Command chief Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant told reporters last week.

“So there is a big focus in the Pentagon, in [the office of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration], in [Space Systems Command], in the acquisition organizations, to really look at where those concerns are.  But there is a recognition that absolutely that’s a concern. It is a big focus area for us.”

The Space Development Agency’s launches of low Earth orbit satellites supporting the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture highlight the difficulties contractors are having scaling up the production and manufacturing capabilities to support the transition to a distributed network of smaller satellites.

“Our constellations are so much bigger that we need a lot more of those parts. That’s a rather simplistic view, but it’s very, very factual,” said Garrant.

Derek Tournear, the SDA’s director, echoed the sentiment, saying that when the agency first launched what’s known as Tranche 0 satellites in 2023, the delays were primarily due to COVID-19 supply chain impacts.

Tranche 1, which was projected to launch in September but is now scheduled to launch in the March-April timeframe — Tournear said the challenge now is to scale up production.

“The root cause of the slip on Tranche 0 was the COVID supply chain impacts, where it became nearly impossible to even buy a resistor, let alone space-qualified parts.  We are now looking at about six months late on Tranche 1 as well,” Tournear said.

“What it looks like there is, you’re able to buy resistors, but the manufacturers that said, ‘We have all of these supply chains coming together, and we’ll be able to build these things, and we’ll get up to a production rate of 10 optical communications terminals a month.’ Maybe they were a little optimistic, and maybe they only got up to seven a month, and it’s taken them a while to get up to 10. That’s causing some of these delays and that’s where you see this learning curve. Tranche 0 was just getting the parts in hand. Tranche 1 is building up your manufacturing capability, which always goes slower than people anticipate.”

Tournear’s acquisition strategy, Garrant said, is “where we are really pushing other non-traditional providers to help build up the industrial base.”

The Defense Department’s efforts to revitalize the defense industrial base are still in its early stages — the Pentagon just released its first-ever national defense strategy in January, followed by the implementation plan released last month.

The Office of Strategic Capital is also working to address defense industrial base production capabilities — nearly  $1 billion of credit is now available to companies to procure, refurbish, or install manufacturing equipment that supports the production of technologies considered critical to national security.

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