Defending every domain from the highest domain
High-value assets in space means positioning both exquisite payloads and quick-react, short-term, inexpensive small sats across orbital regimes to accomplish specific missions.
In addition to providing new "tenets" for Space Force officials, "I'm really messaging three things to industry — that I really want them to give me credible proposals, and I really want them to execute, and I'm not going to tolerate poor performance," Frank Calvelli told Breaking Defense.
SpRCO head Kelly Hammett told Breaking Defense in an interview that the "operational integration" process involves "tens of force generation elements with POAMS [plans of action and milestones] that take years to close everything out."
Mandrake 2's next trick, after demonstrating optical intersatellite links, will be using lasers for space-to-ground communications.