Theresa Hitchens is the Space and Air Force reporter at Breaking Defense. The former Defense News editor was a senior research associate at the University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM). Before that, she spent six years in Geneva, Switzerland as director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR).
A sci-fi geek, voracious reader, enthusiastic cook, dabbler in poetry, Theresa is also the proud mom of a wonderful young man by the name of Nicholas.
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Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall explained that the “small decrease in the number for the Space Force” isn’t itself quite reflective of reality, as there are mitigating circumstances that lessen the blow.
Gen. Michael Guetlein said that the service is “looking at losing about seven” of the 10 launches it planned under the National Security Space Launch program in FY24 if the CR is prolonged.
Lt. Gen. Shawn Bratton, who has been charged to establish the new Space Force Futures Command, said cislunar and dynamic space operations are areas for the command’s scrutiny, since neither have yet proven their ‘military utility.”
“Approximately 90 [percent] of our foundational data is unclassified, which helps us share products more broadly with partners and allies across the globe,” a spokesperson for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency told Breaking Defense.
Space Force’s primary acquisition command, Space Systems Command (SSC), is seeking industry input on the possibility of building smaller, lighter and cheaper GPS satellites.
“We are clearly moving away from airborne ISR assets and moving into space. It’s the absolute right thing to do from a resiliency and sustainability perspective,” Air Force space acquisition czar Frank Calvelli said.
“This is not only new; it’s astounding. It’s shocking. It’s a huge change (if adopted),” one industry contractor told Breaking Defense of the proposal.
“Nuclear weapons in space are a really, really dumb idea,” said Jessica West of Canadian non-profit Ploughshares, but experts note that with Russia, nothing can ever be fully ruled out.
“It’s not going to be like a ‘boom’ milestone delivery where one day there’s nothing and the next day, there’s a finished system,” Richard DalBello, director of the Office of Space Commerce, said of the swap from DoD to Commerce.
The combat squadron arrangement aligns the Space Force with how the Air Force, Army and Navy present and deploy forces to combatant commands, such as Indo-Pacific and European Command, said Lt. Gen. Doug Schiess, head of Space Forces-Space.
Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said the new Futures Command will not just be looking at what new capabilities the Space Force should build, own and operate, but also at how commercial tech, systems and services can fill some needs.
Under the “reoptimizing” effort, changes are coming across the Department of the Air Force, from new training approaches to the establishment of high-level offices.
