Lt. Gen. Michael A. Hamel, head of Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles, offered the symposium audience this wry view: “If you listen to the pundits … everything is broken, so we should go home and forget it.” Hamel reminded the crowd that the recently retired Titan program set the record for consecutive successful military space launches. But, he emphasized that it would take a concerted effort by industry and government to move past dead ends and dragging programs.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.