Space may be the final frontier, but the Defense Logistics Agency and the U.S. Space Force marked a new beginning in their partnership as both organizations met at DLA’s headquarters for their first integration day April 24.
“We’re really excited about this opportunity to sit down with you to better understand the Space Force’s challenges, especially from a logistics standpoint, and identify actions that we can take to help mitigate those challenges,” DLA Director Army Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly said during his opening remarks.
Both the Space Force and DLA are in a transformation cycle driven by many common elements, Simerly said, including the increased reliance upon the space domain and the growing risk within it.
“Part of that risk is also driving our change across all domains, and that’s this contested logistics environment where our opponents understand that they can combat us by disconnecting us from our ability to sustain the fight,” Simerly said.
Both organizations [signed an interagency agreement](https://www.dla.mil/About-DLA/News/News-Article-View/Article/3910781/dla-space-force-agree-to-new-framework-for-logistics-support/) in 2024 to align supply requirements, and the DLA director noted that the Space Force’s requirements are somewhat different than the other services.
“We know that there will be some unique requirements within Space Force, some of which we’ve already accounted for, many of which we have not,” he said. “We know that as we think about terrestrial launch and orbital requirement, there are some unique conditions under which you operate and unique requirements that we can and should be able to tailor support for.”
Since the signing of the 2024 agreement, DLA and the Space Force have been working on domestically producing the propellant hydrazine, contested logistics and sustaining high fulfillment rates in support of Space Force missions, said Air Force Chief Operating Officer Kathryn Kolbe.
“We hope that portfolio of work that we do together will grow over time,” she said.
Topics of discussion included space launch operations, supply chain resiliency, and fuel production, storage and distribution.
“Space launch, and space in general, is vital to the warfighter. But space launch is our mechanism to provide that support to the warfighter, so it’s extremely important that we look at alternative means to create resiliency in our supply chains that we all have concerns about together,” Kolbe said.
DLA is reworking its digital ecosystem so it can apply state-of-the-art tools for estimation, analysis and decision support, Simerly said.
“As we think about this relationship, we’re also designing it to be aligned with your requirements and your information, so where it’s appropriate, we can better anticipate your requirements by being able to consume your data and share our data continuously with you,” Simerly said.
DLA had the opportunity to host the Space Force for its first integration day because many Air Force Materiel Command representatives work for both services and would be on-site for Air Force Integration Day, said Gregory Ogorek, Space Force Senior Service Integrator for DLA.
“The Space Force is an enabler across all services. Their role is constantly expanding with golden dome and other projects,” Ogorek said.
Service integration days usually include a review of action items from the previous year that both DLA and the service agreed upon, as well as new items for the upcoming year. DLA is working with the Space Force on establishing these items for the future, Ogorek said.
“Action items are still going through a refinement process,” Ogorek said. “We want to make sure that we’re able to get a clear, concise and achievable goals based on what senior leaders said, what is possible, and what meets the needs from both sides.”
Action items under consideration include the organizations partnering to analyze the ability of DLA’s global distribution footprint to support the forward positioning of material in a contested logistics environment. Both organizations will also share supply chain risk management best practices on contractor-focused interactions and partner to investigate joint exercise opportunities.
DLA plans on holding integration days with the Space Force annually, and there are other meetings throughout the year with the service and various levels of agency leadership.
“The key takeaway is Space Force is definitely a growth industry. Their prominence and importance in the defense of the nation is expanding exponentially,” Ogorek said. “We’re happy to get right along with them as they’re going through these iterations as to how they supply that and perform those missions.”
| Date Taken: |
05.04.2026 |
| Date Posted: |
05.04.2026 07:49 |
| Story ID: |
564273 |
| Location: |
FORT BELVOIR, VIRGINIA, US |
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This work, DLA holds first Space Force Integration Day, by Nancy Benecki, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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