TGCC Chapter Program August 2020
Designing for Principles
United States national security is highly dependent on DoD space capabilities. It is broadly acknowledged that these capabilities are susceptible to adversary attack due to an intrinsically fragile architecture that has long assumed a relatively benign space environment. This fragility has not been a problem historically, but with the expanding number and types of threats to U.S. space systems, it now represents a significant Achilles’ heel to America’s national security.
To assure that critical space capabilities will be available when needed, the U.S. must develop a more resilient space architecture. But given the increasing complexity of the DoD space enterprise, as well as the dynamic and uncertain threat environment, traditional development and design methodologies may not be up to the task. In order to produce a truly resilient space architecture, a more nimble methodology is required.
Fortunately, the basis of such a nimble methodology already exists, one that emphasizes particular design principles, like flexibility, adaptability, and survivability. It is known as Design for Changeability (DfC) and is inherently better suited to accommodate complexity and more effectively respond to uncertain and changing environments like what we see in the space domain today. This paper proposes maturing and extending the core DfC concepts into a capability development framework referred to as “Designing for Principles” and applying this framework to the development of DoD space capabilities in order to support rapidly achieving and sustaining a resilient space enterprise architecture.