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 U.S. military is maintaining a beefed-up presence in the Middle East, including fighters and air defense assets, following the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities June 22 and subsequent retaliation by the Iranians against Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
