Brig. Gen. John Olson, who advises CSO Gen. Jay Raymond on space logistics issues, believes the US must rapidly act to take the "first mover advantage" for itself to block Chinese ambitions, which could include territorial claims in space.
The ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline in May underscores the urgency for the Pentagon to safeguard its transportation and logistics enterprise, defense officials said.
It's been a whirlwind of a year — and the defense establishment has plenty of thoughts on how it's unfolded and what might come next.
TRANSCOM can now task KC-46 tankers to use their air refueling boom to fill up C-17 Globemaster III, B-52H Stratofortress and other KC-46 aircraft during day-to-day operations.
"We still have several more years of procurement of the KC-46. So, the good thing is we have time to have these conversations, and look at the technologies out there," Lt. Gen. David Nahom told appropriators today.
WASHINGTON: Hot on the heels of an agreement between the Air Force and the FAA to streamline regulations on space launches from military ranges, the head of one of the biggest US launch providers has called for penalizing companies that violate the safety clauses of FAA launch licenses. “The regulations that FAA applies, and the licensing […]
If industry can "turn this into a human transport mechanism -- which some of the companies are talking about doing -- sure the DoD would be interested in exploring options for that, just as we do with the airlines, and the shipping industries today,"AFRL's Program Manager Greg Spanjers said.
Onshoring and investment in military-specific semiconductors anchor a cornerstone of the defense industrial base.
The Joint Warfighting Concept will "envision much smaller force elements that are inherently reliant on very rapid mobility" within a theater, says TRANSCOM head Gen. Stephen Lyons.
"There's a lot of retrofit that will have to take place," Gen. Stephen Lyons said about the replacement of the tanker's faulty boom camera.
"I am confident that accepting the KC-46 with known deficiencies offers the fastest route to fielding a fully operationally capable weapon system," she said. "That said, serious deficiencies and restrictions remain," Air Mobility Command head Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost told reporters.
The Space Prime effort could support game-changing "space transport and logistics" capabilities, says Col. Eric Felt, head of AFRL's Space Vehicles Directorate.
Why edge and endpoint security can’t be an afterthought.
"When you can launch an austere airbase in a space capsule, that's frickin' awesome," says AF acquisition head Will Roper about the idea of suborbital transport spacecraft.
Point-to-point space transport is "a decade plus, maybe even multiple decades, in the future for that to be economical and practical from any commercial standpoint," Carissa Christensen, CEO of Bryce Space and Technologies, says.
AMC has repatriated a total of 350 citizens by "gray tail" aircraft since March 19, Lt. Gen. Thomas said.
"The first is scheduled for Nigeria," Gen. Stephen Lyons, TRANSCOM chief told reporters today, involving transport of "150 passengers" to Washington Dulles Airport in Virginia by civil aviation aircraft.