Officials at Eglin AFB, Fla., have improved the base’s BASH—for Bird and wildlife Aircraft Strike Hazard—program, reducing strikes by almost 75 percent over the past year. The base started its renewed effort by teaming with Agriculture Department wildlife biologists to develop a comprehensive assessment that lead them to identify not only what wildlife was on hand but also why they frequented the base. One outcome was to let grass around the airfield grow longer, since cutting it shorter had made it more ideal for flocking birds.
After years of describing to lawmakers and Pentagon leaders the nature of that threat and the key role spacepower plays in deterring conflict in the domain and enabling the rest of the joint force, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman told reporters during AFA’s Warfare Symposium here that the message appears to…