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.
The Air Force wants to funnel $1.4 billion on air base defense weapon systems to protect its homeland installations and forward-deployed airfields from drones and enemy missile threats.