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.”
Senior U.S. lawmakers expressed frustration that they are being cut out of some of the Trump administration’s most central decisions on military policy and spending. Their concerns, which are shared on both sides of the aisle, concern the budget reconciliation process as well as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plans to slash…