Brig. Gen. James E. “Woody” Haywood. Photo: U.S. Space Force

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—The Department of the Air Force’s acting space acquisition chief recently added a senior adviser to his staff to honcho the seemingly gargantuan task of integrating and making interoperable the military space enterprise.

James “Woody” Haywood said he will work with the “entire space enterprise community” on the integration of the space enterprise.”

Earlier this month, Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, appointed Haywood as his senior adviser to “effect the integration and interoperability” effort, U.S. Space Systems Command (SSC) said on Wednesday. Purdy also made Haywood senior adviser for Space Command, Control, and Integration (SASC2I), which includes advising the Space Systems Integration (SSI) Office within SSC. This includes advising the Space Systems Integration Office (SSIO) for the Space Force within Space Systems Command.

“I think the biggest challenge is complexity,” Haywood told reporters Wednesday evening at the Space Symposium. Beyond the “multitude of systems…that must be interconnected so that missions can execute through that enterprise,” Haywood said people like operators and trainers are part of the “system of systems” complexity.

In addition to the bevy of Defense Department systems, the military space enterprise is being expanded to include commercial and international assets, Haywood said.

The technical integration will require a “modular open systems approach (MOSA),” he said. In general, it comes down to standards, interfaces, and control documents.

Work has begun, Haywood said, pointing to an industry partnership with the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers called the Space Systems MOSA Interface Standards Alliance, which in January announced a new committee to recommend or develop standards for optical communications across space systems operated by SSC, the National Reconnaissance Office, and NASA.

The committee is the Space-to-Gateway/Ground-Optical Communications (S2G-OC) committee. The alliance said the S2G-OC Committee’s work on “Standardized optical communication methods and protocols will enable multi-vendor interoperability of satellites with ground gateways and networks across a hybrid DoD/Commercial architecture.”

In about two months Haywood said he will have a two-year plan and “toolset” that will direct what he wants to see happen.

As Purdy’s adviser, Haywood said his priorities include working with the program executive officers and “partner organizations to define cross-program interfaces,” integrated testing, ensuring space and related ground capabilities are executed in “concert.”

Haywood will also be attuned to resource impacts as he assesses integration needs and will advise Purdy accordingly, he said.

For his SSI role, which was mandated in the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, Haywood said he will advise on space command and control, enterprise system-of-systems integration, space domain awareness and related sensor developments.

An engineer, Haywood has worked for the Air Force for 30 years, working in acquisition, rapid prototyping, and autonomy and artificial intelligence, with half the time spent in space and the other half non-space projects. He also spent five years as an executive in industry.

“I got an opportunity to come to this job and I jumped on it because I love this kind of work,” he said. “I feel I was groomed, grown to be a large space enterprise system of systems integrator.”

This story was first published by Defense Daily