The Air Force would reap great benefits from fully integrating aerospace and cyberspace, said Air Force Space Command boss Gen. John Hyten. Doing that would give airmen “amazing capability,” he said during a Dec. 5 space forum in Washington, D.C., sponsored by AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. Standing in the way of that integration, however, are old mindsets and other mental roadblocks, said Hyten. For starters, AFSPC is “comfortable with the way things are and predisposed against change,” he said. “Sometimes we get lost in our own stovepipes,” he explained. Money isn’t the problem. AFSPC’s budget last year was $9 billion, said Hyten. “For $9 billion, we ought to have the best space and cyber program” in the world, provided the money is applied “in the right places,” he said.
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.