Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) at the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on Feb. 16, pursued the attack. He wanted to know whether Defense Secretary Rumsfeld had weighed his determination that canceling the alternate F-35 engine would provide “minimal risk today” against the impact over the life of the Joint Strike Fighter program. Rumsfeld’s reply: “I was not stating my personal firsthand knowledge. … It was the studies that were made by the senior civilian and military in the department and that was their conclusion.” So, if it doesn’t work out, then no one should blame Rumsfeld. Ahhhh.
The Space Force on April 15 released two highly anticipated future-casting documents that describe what the service expects the space environment will look like in the year 2040 and lay out the force structure it thinks it will need to operate in that environment.