WASHINGTON — Kelly Hammett, the former head of the Space Rapid Capabilities Office, has been named executive director of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center.
The appointment, announced June 18, comes as the Albuquerque-based Space Rapid Capabilities Office appears close to being shuttered as a standalone organization under the Space Force’s acquisition overhaul.
Both the House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act would eliminate the office’s separate statutory status as part of a larger effort to reorganize the Space Force acquisition enterprise.
Hammett led the Space RCO since 2022. He departs as the Space Force implements a new acquisition structure centered on Portfolio Acquisition Executives, senior officials responsible for broad mission areas rather than individual programs.
The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, also headquartered at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, oversees nuclear weapons-related acquisition and sustainment programs supporting Air Force Global Strike Command, which operates the nation’s land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear-capable bomber fleet.
Hammett most recently appeared publicly as Space RCO director on May 27 during the State of the Space Industrial Base conference in Albuquerque. At the event, he acknowledged uncertainty surrounding the reorganization and what it could mean for the office.
The Space Rapid Capabilities Office was established in 2018 amid concern that traditional Pentagon acquisition programs were struggling to keep pace with technological advances and emerging threats from China and Russia. The office was created as an independent organization and was allowed to operate outside the processes that govern larger acquisition programs.
Together with the Space Development Agency, the Space RCO sought to accelerate procurements and shorten development timelines. Congress granted both organizations authorities intended to streamline contracting and speed delivery of new capabilities.
Now, both organizations are being absorbed into a new acquisition framework.
The Space Force has already begun reallocating responsibilities from the Space Development Agency. SDA Director Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo was assigned a dual-hatted role overseeing both the agency and the missile warning and tracking portfolio under the new structure. SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture is being divided among mission-focused acquisition portfolios.
The future disposition of Space RCO programs remains less clear. While lawmakers in both chambers have endorsed eliminating the office’s separate statutory requirements, the Department of the Air Force has not publicly detailed where its programs will ultimately reside within the Portfolio Acquisition Executive framework.
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink has said that the objective is not to eliminate the rapid-acquisition culture associated with the Space Development Agency and Space RCO but to extend those practices across the broader Space Force acquisition enterprise.
