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.”
House, Senate Unveil Competing Proposals for 2026 Budget
July 11, 2025
Lawmakers from the House and Senate laid out competing versions of the annual defense policy bill on July 11, with vastly different potential outcomes for some of the Air Force’s most embattled programs.