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.
Air Force depots are not typically meant for quick repair jobs, but during Operation Epic Fury, the service moved some of its stateside heavy maintenance capability forward to fix battle-damaged aircraft closer to the fight.
