Need at Speed: Sustainment & Logistics Team Drives Expedited DARC Program Milestone and Timely Contract Award Published Feb. 21, 2025 By Dan Cowan, Logistics Management Specialist, SSC/S4 EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Space Systems Command’s (SSC) Sustainment and Logistics team, or S4, recently helped the Deep Space Advance Radar Capability (DARC) program complete a critical independent logistics assessment (ILA) in 30 days; achieving a milestone that typically requires six months. This action drove a faster timeline for the DARC program office to award the contract for its highly anticipated second radar site, and it earned the ILA team recognition as the SSC Acquisition Support Team of the Year for 2024. “We have never seen better coordination and communication between a program office and an ILA team,” said Lea “Maria” Homstad, ILA lead, SSC/S4. DARC program manager and product support manager, “J.D. Alexander and his team were exceedingly proactive in their preparation and responsiveness. We could not possibly have completed the ILA milestone in this short of a timeline without that collaboration, willingness, and dedication of both teams.” The DARC program is a trilateral partnership between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia to design and implement a global network of three advanced ground-based sensors to track very small objects in geosynchronous orbit, to protect critical U.S. and allied satellites. Infrastructure at the first radar site is nearly complete, while a location has been proposed for the second site, pending environmental reviews. During a review in early 2024, to enter the major capability acquisition program pathway, the Secretary of Defense determined the DARC program should complete an independent logistics assessment. An ILA is an analysis of a program’s product support planning conducted by an independent and impartial team of subject matter experts not directly associated with the program being assessed. Typical ILAs can require up to six months to complete. Knowing the SSC/S4 team had a solid reputation for providing ILA support to other SSC program offices, Alexander and his team connected with Homstad. During the initial planning discussion, Homstad agreed to lead the ILA, which meant she would plan and coordinate the assessment, identify and assemble the assessment team, lead the assessment execution and produce the final report. Alexander and the DARC team would set up the artifact library, create all documentation needed for the assessment and build a formal program office team of experts that would work with the ILA team. Both the DARC team and the ILA team worked together to set up this team in 30 days. Homstad used her network contacts to build a 15-member team of multi-functional experts from across SSC in less than 10 days. This team was responsible for evaluating the DARC program’s readiness for milestone b and c and providing in-depth opinions on 14 product support elements. This effort, while a statutory requirement, is not easy for team members, as they continue to support their primary job responsibilities, while also participating on the ILA. Alexander’s team built a robust artifact library to house the documentation evaluated during the assessment. To make library access easier, Alexander proposed two unique solutions. He placed the library in Microsoft Teams and created a file “finder” that enabled ILA team members to locate documents quickly. Both were first-ever efforts and performed flawlessly. Homstad, as the ILA team lead, recommended both as best practices for future assessments. “These new solutions were created in real-time, without any prior examples to follow,” Alexander said. “S4 did a great job of being adaptable while supporting the ILA no matter what my team threw at them.” Once the ILA team was identified, S4 finalized the action plan, trained the ILA team and then scheduled a kick-off meeting with the DARC team members. The ILA team would eventually perform more than 200 unique assessments in 14 product support areas providing expert opinions on the program office’s documentation and preparedness relating to the requirements for becoming a major capability acquisition program. Normally, the ILA would be performed over a period of months, however, Homstad and Alexander developed a plan to complete the ILA in just 10 days. It required close coordination with the program office and constant communication between all participants. They established a daily review of ILA team findings and questions, which enabled the DARC team to provide responses in less than 24 hours. “I knew if we set up a standard process of review with Alexander’s team we could clear up any obstacles before the end of the ILA,” said Mark Royer, an ILA team expert. “This would give the DARC team a great ILA result and help them get their certification in time.” Completion of the ILA allowed the Space Force Service Acquisition Executive to grant the Pre-Milestone B decision and the DARC program office was able to award a $200M dollar contract for the second site. As a result, the ILA team was recognized as the SSC Acquisition Support Team of the Year for 2024.