“There’s nothing we’re doing today in the fight against ISIL that doesn’t rely on space,” said Gen. Jay Raymond, the new commander of Air Force Space Command, on Friday. The US military’s joint fight within “the complex strategic environment that we face” depends on the capabilities delivered by space assets at every step of the way, he said at a Mitchell Institute event in Washington, D.C. Space operations enable the selection and identification of targets in the battlefield, the coordination of intelligence with RPAs, communication among various elements of the command, and the direction of GPS-enabled precision weapons. Raymond said his mission at Space Command is driven by asking, “how can we get the information provided by space into the hands of the warfighter?”
A semi-autonomous Collaborative Combat Aircraft drone shot down an air-to-air target in a Dec. 8 test supported by the U.S. Air Force, a notable milestone in the development of the loyal wingman-type drones that will join the fleets of the USAF, other American services, and allies and adversaries.
