Trump Orders New Space Service; Will Congress Agree?
We've already got soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines and Coasties. If President Trump gets what he wants, we may now have spacemen -- but the Senate may say no.
SASC Doubles Down On R&D Budget, Pushing New Tech The Pentagon Missed
The White House and Pentagon have been talking up the return of Great Power Competition with the rise of China and Russia, but the Senate Armed Services Committee is frustrated that the 2019 defense budget doesn't put money where the rhetoric is.
Modernizing defense enterprise IT without disrupting the mission
Government can’t stop to update systems, so modernization has to happen without interruptions.
The US Needs A ‘Coast Guard’ For Space: Semper Paratus Exteriores Spatium
A battle has been underway for several years now over who will become the FAA of space and how they will do the job. Some wanted the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Tranportation, which boasts the great acronym, FAST. Some wanted NOAA or NASA. Most did not want the Air Force, which has had a […]
Fights Over DoD Bureauracy, Space Force Makes Tensions Flare on HASC
House Armed Services Committee pushes through most of the Trump administration's budget requests, absent some of the usual fights. But the return of sequester looms large in 2020.
Rep. Gabbard Pushes For Heftier Hawaiian Missile Defenses
Pentagon planners aren't only worried about North Korean ICBMs, but Chinese hypersonics and medium-range missiles. That means, according to analysts, that an array of distributed systems are needed to meet a wide range of potential threats.
Sen. Reed Presses Wilson, Goldfein On JSTARS Plans
In a hearing this morning, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed, said he’s skeptical about the current plan to retire the JSTARS radar surveillance plane because the Air Force has been inconsistent, not just about JSTARS, but a host of other programs.
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America must adopt a Sixth Domain of warfare doctrine
The Sixth Domain is not defined by geography. It’s a new kind of conflict in which autonomy and networked systems allow thousand-dollar consumer electronics to destroy multi-million-dollar conventional weapons systems.
Space Architect Is Back! As Wilson Unveils Space Reforms
It's one of the coolest titles in the US military -- space architect! Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson announced Tuesday night there will again be a space architect, known as the Chief Architect.
China Satellite SJ-17, Friendly Wanderer?
When China published its description of SJ-17, the folks at AGI who track satellites for a living raised their eyebrows. The Chinese said it was an experimental satellite. But "the way they phrased it piqued our interest," says Bob Hall, standing a dozen feet from AGI's infamous ice cream stand here.
Whack 7 DoD Agencies, HASC Chair’s Bill Proposes
Pentagon brass are taking a look at what chaff can be cut in order to push along weapons systems like lasers and hypersonics. And they have some powerful Capitol Hill allies.
Air Force Acquisition Test: Missile Warning Sats In 5 Years to Orbit?!
SPACE SYMPOSIUM: The Air Force, eager to get inside the decision cycle of China and Russia, is pressing ahead hard and fast to substantially speed space acquisition. In what is something of a test case for the service, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson last night committed to building the next generation of missile warning satellites, […]
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Why enterprise IT modernization matters now – and how to “delight by design”
Do more with less: streamline workflows, reduce duplication, invest upfront to save long-term.
Air Force Teams With NRO For Secret SSA Bird
After years of missed deadlines, cost overruns and underperformance the Air Force has split the requirements for the troubled Joint Mission System program’s Increment 3, dividing them between the Coalition Space Operations Center and the National Space Defense Center. In a separate but apparently related action, the Air Force has also partnered with the nation's spy satellite builder to create a new Space Situational Awareness satellite.
STRATCOM’s Hyten On B-21, Columbia Class, NC3
Air Force Gen. John Hyten has always wanted to spend time at the house he and his wife bought years ago in Colorado Springs — but he’s too busy with, among other things, alerts of missile launches around the globe, just in case one is US-bound. You’d think the former head of Space Command, now […]
New UN Guidelines For Space Sustainability Are A Big Deal
You probably don't know it, but in early February 87 countries agreed to voluntary guidelines to enhance the long-term sustainability of the space domain, a significant achievement in space diplomacy. Given that it took eight years to reach this agreement on a set of non-legally binding measures that largely reaffirm existing practices, it is not surprising that it was not widely covered in the news. But it matters.
Can’t Stop The Signal: Army Strips Down Network To Survive Major War
Unlike the Taliban, Russia and China can shoot down our drones, jam our transmissions, and hack our computers. So to prepare to fight them, we need a very different communications network — one the US Army is now studying how to build.