Orlando, February 18, 2010—With space becoming a more congested and contested domain, the Air Force’s focus should not solely be on protecting its space assets, but also on preserving “the appropriate redundancies” to them through airborne complements or other backup capability, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium. Citing the case of intelligence satellites, Schwartz said they “should at least, in part, be backed up by other systems.” In some situations, he continued, “highly capable remotely piloted aircraft might be capable of providing some compensating capability,” even if it’s not identical. “We need to think in a cross-domain way when seeking such resilience,” Schwartz explained, noting that this message is “a footstomper” due it its importance.
The Air Force has selected Collins Aerospace and Shield AI to develop the software Collaborative Combat Aircraft will use to fly missions alongside manned fighters, the service revealed Feb. 12—and drone-maker General Atomics was quick to announce it has already flown its YFQ-42A aircraft with Collins’ system.
