Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy frames a rapid shift in priorities
Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, the Space Force portfolio acquisition executive for advanced programs, told the Space Industry Days conference that cislunar space has moved from marginal experimentation to a high-priority warfighting domain. Purdy said his office, the Cislunar Coordination Office (CCO), was established in May to give industry clearer signals about military needs. He reports to Air Force Secretary Troy Meink and described the change in tone across the Defense Department as driven by senior leaders now publicly calling cislunar a warfighting domain.
Two RFIs: commercial hardware for PNT and space domain awareness, and AI for autonomy
Purdy said the Space Force plans to issue two requests for information (RFIs) “soon.” The first will seek commercially available technology for foundational cislunar missions, specifically naming space domain awareness and positioning, navigation and timing (PNT). The second will ask about artificial intelligence software to let spacecraft operate autonomously in the region between Earth and the Moon.
On timelines, Purdy set a clear acquisition posture: the service wants capabilities it can field by the end of fiscal 2029. He emphasized a preference for “rapid deliverable capability,” saying, “I’m not going to pay you R&D funds for this stuff.” The office is looking for “existing commercial or near-commercial means, non-development solutions, hardware with actual relative relevant evidence behind it, software that doesn’t need a huge amount of work … and then ground systems — not as an afterthought, but as part of an integrated network.”
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See what we buildCislunar autonomy: “a really painful space” for spacecraft operations
Purdy described cislunar operations as uniquely difficult for autonomous spacecraft. “Cislunar is a really painful space,” he said, explaining that craft operating there must detect and manage hardware failures, process sensor data, and adjust missions as conditions change. The second RFI will therefore ask industry about capabilities in advanced AI and autonomous operations to address those complexities.
He also clarified the CCO’s role: it is not tasked to oversee all cislunar operations but to provide funds and support across the Space Force effort while requirements and acquisition teams remain responsible for defining mission needs and procuring capabilities.
China’s Cubesats and the wider policy response
Purdy cited recent activity by China as a central reason for the new urgency. Breaking Defense reported that China launched 30 Cubesats into a highly elliptical orbit near an Earth–Moon Lagrange point and into a circular lunar orbit, a project covered in September by the People’s Daily (Chinese language version). While China has described the effort at recent U.N.-related meetings as a science experiment, several experts told Breaking Defense they view the project as intended to support cislunar surveillance.
Beyond the RFIs, Purdy said the Office of the Secretary of Defense is launching a series of interagency policy working groups on cislunar issues. He also said the Space Force is working closely with NASA “to coordinate infrastructure plans rather than build separate systems,” seeking to “build a unified architecture across the government” and identify investment deltas where the Space Force should fund military needs.
What this means for technologists, acquisition leaders, and operators
- Technologists and vendors: Expect solicitations that favor ready or near-ready commercial products and software. Purdy’s repeated emphasis — “non-development solutions” and hardware with “actual relative relevant evidence” — signals preference for rapid fielding over long R&D cycles.
- Acquisition and policy teams: The CCO’s roadmap and the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s interagency groups will create new coordination demands. Procurement leaders will need to align NASA-contributed infrastructure with military deltas and be ready to act on a prioritized list of unfunded requirements.
- Operators on the ground and in orbit: Short-term fixes are already being prioritized. Purdy said his office has a list of “the emergency” unfunded requirements where “a couple $100K could solve a lot of problems,” and that the CCO will push to address those items to help operators “glue together a couple of antennas and pull some data.”
The next concrete steps Purdy identified are the issuance of the two RFIs and continued interagency policy work. The Space Force wants commercially mature kit and advanced autonomy software fielded by the end of fiscal 2029, while the CCO refines its cislunar roadmap and pursues a prioritized list of unfunded requirements. Whether industry can deliver the non-development, evidence-backed solutions Purdy seeks will determine how quickly the Pentagon converts the rhetorical elevation of cislunar space into deployed capability.
