"Not sure if this is a black swan, but I would not be surprised if the next administration kicks off an internal review of the services’ roles and responsibilities, with an eye toward reducing excessive redundancy in force structure and capabilities," Mark Gunzinger says .
"What I'm really trying to do is maximize my capability," Air Force Chief of Staff Charles Brown says.
Defending a country the size of the US from threats requires advanced sensing, communications and interception capabilities.
The Space Development Agency "could easily die away without anybody missing it," said former Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson.
"His greatest challenge will be to build the coalition in Washington, and particularly on Capitol Hill, that will support new ways of rapidly developing capabilities," says former Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson.
Creation of the Space Development Agency was "disconnected from the threat and the needs of the warfighter," say Wilson, thus "highly unlikely to survive serious scrutiny."
But Col. Kathryn Spletstoser doubled down on her accusations against her former boss: “He could have raped me.”
Answering the Pentagon’s call to bolster defense industrial base.
"The external and internal communication regarding [DoD] smallsat strategy is not consistent and not clear," Carissa Christensen, CEO of Bryce Space and Technologies, said wryly.
"Physics are physics," says Rick Ambrose, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space. "There are still some things for which a geostationary approach makes more sense. There are other areas that a Low Earth Orbit makes more sense, and everything in between."
Trump nominee for Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett "is a force to be reckoned with and has the leadership, experience, and knowledge to lead our Air Force into the future during a time of increased global threats," says Sen. Martha McSally.
Large networks of small, cheap satellites derived from commercial technology would be harder for China or Russia to kill than a handful of expensive, exquisite military-unique birds. But who gets to build it?
From emerging data networks to missile tracking and cyber resilience, Breaking Defense’s latest eBook brings together essential reporting on the evolving role of satellites in national security.
Air Force wants China and that other, much poorer competitor known as Russia, to worry the US is in the early stages of fielding weapons systems that will tip the strategic see-saw to the American side. As outgoing Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson made clear here today, it is, in part, a cost-imposition strategy.
Sen. James Inhofe remains cool to the Space Force and most of his colleagues on a key Senate panel sound like they're right there with him.
The US has more to lose in space than our competitors, so the Pentagon is considering firing a warning shot to showcase what it can do.
"Launching hundreds of cheap satellites each year as a substitute" for current milspace systems "will result in failure on America's worst day if we relay on them alone," Wilson says.