Overall space budgets will be uncertain the next few years, but USAF needs to keep pushing to make space capabilities more responsive, said Gen. Bob Kehler, head of Air Force Space Command. The nation needs operationally responsive space “as a strategic alternative,” Kehler said Friday at AFA’s Global Warfare Symposium in Beverly Hills, Calif. ORS is not just small launchers and satellites, he added, saying ORS begins “by taking existing programs and making them more responsive.” The US military needs rapid launch capability, common re-usable ground systems, and small militarily useful sensors. Ensuring space access today, said Kehler, unlike during the Cold War when loss of space support would not have greatly affected a war on Europe’s central front, is critical. He emphasized that losing space support today would immediately affect every aspect of US military operations.
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
