The US military is formulating a national military strategy for space, Gen. Kevin Chilton, commander of US Strategic Command, told defense reporters March 4. The general said STRATCOM saw the need for the document as it reviewed the nation’s plans for operating in space and protecting its space assets in the wake of China’s successful anti-satellite test in January 2007. Such a strategy, he said, “we found lacking.” Accordingly, the command’s directorate for plans and policy has been working on it for the past several months. “We have a version of that that is being presented up for consideration right now,” Chilton said. The general, who has been at the helm of STRATCOM since October 2007, repeated DOD’s position that the nation needs better capabilities to detect and track objects in space. “In my dream, we would know what is going up into orbit before it launches because we would have that kind of intelligence,” he said. “We would track it from the boost phase all the way through insertion into its final orbit. And we know what it is and we know what the intentions of the government are that has it up there and we keep track of it. If it maneuvers, we know it maneuvers and we find that out in a very timely fashion rather than a long period of time where you risk losing track of it.”
As Air Force leaders consider concepts of operations for Collaborative Combat Aircraft, sustainment in the field—and easing that support by using standard parts and limiting variants—should be a key consideration, according to a new study from AFA's Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Studies.