At least one current space leader couldn’t agree more with Peter Teets (above) that a future space cadre must include all services. Lt. Gen. Michael Hamel, head of Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles AFB, Calif., also would include a much wider array of experts. Writing in Air and Space Power Journal, Hamel asserts, “The space cadre must include a diversity of specialties beyond simply satellite operators; it must include intelligence, acquisition, communications, and C2 [command and control] experts.” He goes on to note that space professionals must not devalue the “technical expertise, innovation, personal initiative, and mission focus” that “made military space programs and operations so successful in the early years,” however he would increase the value of an “operational warfighting focus and ethos.”
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.