EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Space Systems Command (SSC) hosted the inaugural “SSC Subcontracting Forum” Feb. 6 to connect large military contractors with potential small business partners. The first-of-its-kind forum dovetails with SSC’s ongoing drive for innovative and efficient acquisition of space-based capabilities that empower our Nation’s warfighters.
SSC manages a $15.6 billion acquisition budget, working in partnership with industry to deliver systems varying from a new satellite or launch vehicle to ground-based sensors and communications equipment.
In most cases, the Department of Defense’s (DoD) lead partner on such programs is a prime contractor from the private sector, often a large aerospace or defense company whose name is a household word. In turn, primes are supported by scores or even hundreds of subcontractors, usually smaller companies that supply components or services to the larger company, and whose contribution to the overall program is managed by the prime. The large and small business categories are defined by the federal government using a variety of criteria.
“SSC, historically, has had a focus on buying the entire system: an entire satellite, or an entire satellite constellation,” said Aaron Parra, a contracting specialist who leads SSC’s Small Business Office. “Today, we are introducing agile, innovative small businesses to our supply chain via subcontracting opportunities both to broaden our access to cutting edge technologies and to work faster on behalf of our warfighters.”
Expanding the number of potential subcontractors and potentially helping some of the same companies make the move to serving as a prime contractor is the responsibility of SSC’s Small Business Office, which oversaw the award of contracts valued at almost $945 million in 2024 to qualified small businesses.
Although impressive, that amount is less than a tenth of the total SSC procurement budget that is open to small businesses – some $11.5 billion – most of which, instead, went to large businesses. The opportunity to bring more small companies into the mix is why the office hosted the “SSC Subcontracting Forum” in February, organizers said.
“Most of these small businesses are producing highly innovative technology that we would like to capture, but they aren’t in a position to serve as a prime,” Parra said. “The purpose of this forum was to connect those manufacturers, that segment of our small business industrial base, to our large primes in order to integrate them into the supply chain and into the primes’ deliverables.”
The Feb. 6 event – designed entirely to improve SSC’s engagement with partners, industry, and the industrial base - was held in Southern California, bringing together representatives from companies large and small. Almost 200 representatives from more than 150 private sector companies attended the event, held in the Los Angeles suburb of El Segundo, home to Los Angeles Air Force Base and SSC headquarters.
“I was excited when Aaron brought me the idea, and I stand behind the initiative and its desired outcomes,” said Deidra Eberhardt, a senior SSC official who oversees the command’s commercial, business, and acquisitions functions. “This is a relationship that we need to nurture to improve the opportunities for small business and for fortifying the prime contractor supply chain.”
Among the subcontractors attending was Falcon ExoDynamics, a small business based in nearby Redondo Beach, which provides specialized engineering services for primes, DoD, and NASA.
“I see small businesses as being a force multiplier for the primes,” said Michael Klug, the company’s president. “I can do business at a fraction of the costs because my overheads are low.”
At the forum, panelists discussed the roles of primes, how to bid as a subcontractor, and mentor-protégé programs for both primes and subcontractors facilitated by the Defense Department and the U.S. Small Business Administration.
“We need you, our small businesses. We need to increase resiliency in our supply chain,” said Patricia Pierson, Lockheed Martin Space’s manager of Small Business Programs, who spoke at the forum. “We’re going to accomplish this by inserting more competition in our supply chain to reduce single source dependencies, utilizing new, innovative, small business partners.”
With the success of the forum, SSC’s Small Business Office is planning for this to become an annual event in Los Angeles, and to potentially host similar events in other markets where the SSC operates, including California’s Central Coast, home to Vandenberg Space Force Base, and Central Florida, where Patrick Space Force Base and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station are located.
“We do have small business professionals at Patrick and Vandenberg, so we are hoping to do more localized outreach in those regions,” Parra said. “There is a wide range of needs – and opportunities – at those installations and others across the country, and we really want to make certain we can bring subcontractors with the capabilities we need on board, no matter where they are located. This should be a win-win-win, all around, for all of us.”
Resources for small businesses looking for opportunities with Space Systems Command or other DoD organizations:
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The Space Enterprise Consortium
The Space Enterprise Consortium, or SpEC, was created in 2017 through what was then the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, today’s SSC, at Los Angeles Air Force Base (LAAFB).
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Space Industry Days
Space Industry Days, and Reverse Industry Day events, provide industry an opportunity to receive presentations from USAF, USSF, and SSC’s senior leadership on current and emerging opportunities.