Air Force Space Command last week gathered representatives from the other services, joint agencies, and the Intelligence Community to jump start a collective process to get Operationally Responsive Space “off the ground quickly and deliver effects rapidly,” according to Gen. Kevin Chilton, AFSPC boss. Capt. Catie Hague reports that Army Col. Dave Cox, head of the Army’s Future Warfare Center, called the meeting “very productive” with the “right people” in the room to identify the “right resources” and the “best organization to figure out the joint process for requirements.” The Joint ORS Office director, Air Force Col. Kevin McLaughlin agreed that it was a “key meeting” for ORS, which he described as in its “infancy.” Chilton, who has been nominated to take over US Strategic Command, calls AFSPC the lead integrator, whose job is to capture all the ideas and establish standards. “We certainly will not be the owners of all the ideas, [but] someone has to be leading the integration,” said Chilton. In his view, without agree-upon standards, “We’ll wind up with unique satellites that require unique buses that require unique interfaces to unique boosters.” And that would take the O and R out of ORS.
US Space Command Should Always Be Led by a Guardian
Sept. 12, 2026
General Stephen Whiting took command of U.S. Space Command in January 2024, and if customary three-year tenures hold, his tour would end in January 2027. The question now before the President and Senate is who should follow him? Whoever they choose, it has to be a Guardian—and so should every successor…
