Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the president of Kyrgyzstan, has been negotiating with the Pentagon over the past and future use of Manas Air Base. The situation appears to be escalating. Several news reports state Bakiyev wants a significant raise for the base’s rent—“tens of times more” according to Agence France-Presse and “100-fold” per The Financial Times. This is the facility to which many USAF forces moved when Uzbekistan kicked the US military out of K-2.
Advancements in commercial space technology could make President Donald Trump’s proposed “Golden Dome” missile defense network far more likely to succeed than the failed “Star Wars” strategic umbrella initiative of the 1980s, U.S. Space Command’s top general said May 22....