Colorado Springs, Colo. The US military must reject the notion that it needs to give up resiliency for capability, Doug Loverro, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, said Wednesday at the 32nd Space Symposium. “That notion is only applicable if you decide that the box you’re playing in is the same box that you’ve always played in,” Loverro said. The three policy challenges that must be overcome to use commercial and international space in support of Department of Defense needs are: having policy keep pace with innovation, determining the policy for applying lethal force using space services the US does not control, and security policy, Loverro said. We currently don’t have a good mechanism for sharing space services and information with our allies, even though we have policies for air, sea, and land, he said. We must embrace innovation and the international community to meet our resiliency needs without sacrificing capability, Loverro said. (For more symposium coverage see also: Strengthening Space Systems and Taking the Search out of Search and Rescue.)
The six-week government shutdown did not affect the hours flown by Air Force pilots, a service spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine—avoiding what could have been a major blow at a time when flying hours are already lower than they have been in decades.
