The “secret is out” about the US and allied reliance on space, and the things we get from space that give us “a qualitative and quantitative edge over adversaries also makes space an irresistible target,” the Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force for Space said Feb. 25 at AWS16. To guard against potential attacks, the US is trying to improve resilience by improving space situational awareness, optimizing its space architecture for effectiveness and reliance instead of just efficiency, and changing the way it operates in space, Winston Beauchamp said. Space has been “a peaceful, benign domain for quite a while,” Lt. Gen. John Raymond, USAF’s deputy chief of staff for operations, said. “That is clearly not the case today.” One of the biggest holes USAF needed to plug was partnerships, Raymond said, so it has been working on partnerships with the intelligence community through the Joint Interagency Combined Space Operations Center, on commercial partnerships with a commercial integration cell at the Joint Space Operations Center, and with international partners. “We’ve got to get better at that … and we’re working hard to develop those partnerships,” he said.
So many new F-35s have piled up waiting for TR-3 upgrade testing to conclude that it will take a year to deliver them all once deliveries get the green light to resume, according to a new Government Accountability Office report. That go-ahead isn't likely to happen right away.