Maps & Jammers: Army Intensifies Training Vs. Russian-Style Jamming

Maps & Jammers: Army Intensifies Training Vs. Russian-Style Jamming
Maps & Jammers: Army Intensifies Training Vs. Russian-Style Jamming

HUNTSVILLE, ALA.: After two decades of largely ignoring the danger, the Army is seriously training for a scary scenario: What if GPS, our satellite communications and our wireless networks go down? It’s hardly a hypothetical threat. Russian electronic warfare units locate Ukrainian troops by their transmissions and jam their radios so they can’t call for help, setting them…

‘Most Troubled Program’ In Air Force: Raytheon’s OCX

‘Most Troubled Program’ In Air Force: Raytheon’s OCX
‘Most Troubled Program’ In Air Force: Raytheon’s OCX

CAPITOL HILL: After a decade of improvements to space acquisition after more than a decade of disasters, the most troubled program being built by the US Air Force is again a space program. So said the man who should know: Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves, head of the amazing but often-reluctant-to-speak folks at Air Force Space and…

Shelby, Air Force Press Case To Keep RD-180; McCain Not So Much

Shelby, Air Force Press Case To Keep RD-180; McCain Not So Much
Shelby, Air Force Press Case To Keep RD-180; McCain Not So Much

CAPITOL HILL: The war ground on today between San. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and his colleague Sen. Richard Shelby on the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee. Shelby, knowing he had a policy friend in Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, asked her about the Russian-made RD-180 rocket engine essential to US satellite launches…

People, Not Tech: DepSecDef Work On 3rd Offset, JICSPOC

People, Not Tech: DepSecDef Work On 3rd Offset, JICSPOC
People, Not Tech: DepSecDef Work On 3rd Offset, JICSPOC

PENTAGON: The Pentagon says it wants a revolution and the 2017 budget to be unveiled today funds a host of high-tech weapons, from arsenal planes to Hyper Velocity Projectiles to robots. But for Deputy Defense Secretary  Bob Work, the real bleeding edge of innovation is not a weapon, no matter how impressive. It’s a secretive command…

McCain Intros Bill To Stop RD-180 Use; Pentagon Urges Caution

McCain Intros Bill To Stop RD-180 Use; Pentagon Urges Caution
McCain Intros Bill To Stop RD-180 Use; Pentagon Urges Caution

WASHINGTON: Sen. John McCain continued his crusade to stop the Pentagon from using Russia’s highly reliable and cheap RD-180 rocket engines to launch American military satellites during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing today. The Arizona senator and the House Majority Leader, Kevin McCarthy of California, introduced a bill today designed to overturn language in…

Congress Must Kill Sequester To Pay For Pacific Pivot: CSIS

Congress Must Kill Sequester To Pay For Pacific Pivot: CSIS
Congress Must Kill Sequester To Pay For Pacific Pivot: CSIS

WASHINGTON: If the United States is serious about “rebalancing” to Asia, it needs to invest some serious cash. Strategic small change won’t deter China or reassure our increasingly anxious allies, says a new report from the influential Center for Strategic & International Studies. And that means the CSIS study’s sponsor — Congress — must get its…

HASC StratForces Chair Slams Air Force Space Management

HASC StratForces Chair Slams Air Force Space Management
HASC StratForces Chair Slams Air Force Space Management

CAPITOL HILL: The short view: Congressman slams Air Force for weather satellite fiasco. Long view: Congress, White House, Air Force, NASA, Commerce Department have all screwed up US weather satellite programs. “We could have saved the Air Force and the Congress a lot of aggravation if we put a half of a billion dollars in…

McCain Warns Shelby Off On RD-180; Writes SecDef

McCain Warns Shelby Off On RD-180; Writes SecDef
McCain Warns Shelby Off On RD-180; Writes SecDef

WASHINGTON: Sen. John McCain has fired another salvo at the United Launch Alliance over its use of Russian-made RD-180 rocket engines, telling Defense Secretary Ash Carter he wants an audit of ULA’s “business systems” and he wants that and more information by Dec. 21. This latest kerfuffle arose after ULA’s decided to refrain from bidding for the Air Force’s…

US Jammed Own Satellites 261 Times; What If Enemy Did?

US Jammed Own Satellites 261 Times; What If Enemy Did?
US Jammed Own Satellites 261 Times; What If Enemy Did?

WASHINGTON: Russia and China are investing heavily in cyber and electronic warfare, but they’re not shutting down US satellite downlinks yet. Instead, we have met the enemy and he is us — we think. “In 2015 thus far, we have had 261 cases where we have been jammed from getting information from our satellites down…

Not So Seamless: AFSPC’s Hyten Decries Ops Center Stovepipes

Not So Seamless: AFSPC’s Hyten Decries Ops Center Stovepipes
Not So Seamless: AFSPC’s Hyten Decries Ops Center Stovepipes

NATIONAL HARBOR: The Air Force vision is of a seamless global network, swiftly spotting threats and taking them down with smart bombs, computer viruses, or (one day) lasers as the situation demands. The reality? Not so seamless. Air Force Space Command, for example, houses both the military’s space operations center and a new cyber ops…

New IC, DoD Space Center May Take Over From JSPOC

New IC, DoD Space Center May Take Over From JSPOC
New IC, DoD Space Center May Take Over From JSPOC

HUNTSVILLE, ALA.: The new Intelligence Community-military space operations center the military is creating may replace the long-established JSPOC, two top commanders said, but a lot has to happen first. The nascent JICSPOC — Joint, Interagency, & Coalition Space Operations Center — will start as an experiment before potentially becoming a backup to JSPOC and then…

Kendall ‘Open-Minded’ On Sharing RD-180 Replacement Costs

Kendall ‘Open-Minded’ On Sharing RD-180 Replacement Costs
Kendall ‘Open-Minded’ On Sharing RD-180 Replacement Costs

HUNTSVILLE, ALA.: American ingenuity can absolutely build a rocket engine to replace the Russian-made RD-180, the Pentagon’s top buyer said today. The wide-open questions are: how soon can they do it; and how much will the Pentagon have to pay. “The big problem isn’t the technology, it’s the time,” Frank Kendall told reporters at the…

GAO Urges DoD To Take Care On New EELV Competition; Gather Data First

GAO Urges DoD To Take Care On New EELV Competition; Gather Data First
GAO Urges DoD To Take Care On New EELV Competition; Gather Data First

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon’s push to open the EELV to greater competition may be counterproductive to the best management of the program. The Government Accountability Office says this approach “could limit program oversight and scheduling flexibility” for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle. Why? It’s simple really: “The Air Force plans to develop an acquisition strategy for…

Would Spies Command In A Space War? Dunford Says Maybe

Would Spies Command In A Space War? Dunford Says Maybe
Would Spies Command In A Space War? Dunford Says Maybe

PENTAGON: If a spy satellite is attacked, who will command America’s response — the head of Strategic Command or the Director of National Intelligence? If an Air Force satellite is attacked first, who would command America’s response? These questions are being hotly — but very quietly –debated at the highest reaches of the U.S. government. Since an…