If
confirmed by the Senate, former CIA director Robert Gates will become the next Defense Secretary. Currently Gates is running Texas A&M University and serving on the Congressionally chartered Iraq Study Group, which plans to meet soon with President Bush. In his Nov. 8 press conference, Bush maintained that he had decided before the election that he would nominate Gates for the defense post. He noted, too, that Gates through 25 years in national security had served six Presidents from both parties. Bush called him “a steady, solid leader who can help make the necessary adjustments in our approach to meet our current challenges.”
The Space Force’s work to establish a pool of at-the-ready commercial satellite capacity during a crisis is moving out of the pilot phase as the service prepares to award its next batch of contracts in 2026.
