Post by auntym on Apr 20, 2016 13:04:10 GMT -6
www.defenseone.com/management/2016/04/air-force-general-space-war-chief/127437/
The Air Force’s Next Chief Might Be Its Space-War General
April 13, 2016
By Marcus Weisgerber / www.defenseone.com/voices/marcus-weisgerber/9566/
Gen. John Hyten has never flown a warplane, but he plays a role in just about every Air Force mission.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Gen. John Hyten’s office is 7,000 miles from the battlefields of Iraq and Syria, but the men and women he commands help guide just about every bomb dropped on an Islamic State target. Still, it’s another theater entirely that worries the head of Air Force Space Command — and top Pentagon leaders.
“The growing vulnerability of our space assets is both a strategic and operational problem,” Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work said Tuesday at the National Space Symposium, an annual conference sponsored by the Space Foundation. “Strategically, space system vulnerability contributes to crisis instability because it provides incentives for preemption of our space assets.”
From Peterson Air Force Base near the foot of the Rocky Mountains, Hyten oversees the 38,000 airmen who operate their service’s diverse constellation of spy, communications, and global positioning satellites that support and enable military operations around the world. He also oversees the Air Force’s cyber forces.
Now Hyten is being considered for another job: Air Force chief of staff. Should that happen, he would be the first non-pilot to lead the service since it was created in 1947. His selection would underscore that Pentagon leaders expect future wars to be fought not just terrestrially, but in space and online.
Hyten’s remarks here at the National Space Symposium could well be his last public comments before President Obama nominates a replacement for Gen. Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of staff who is retiring on July 1. Pentagon sources say Hyten is a leading candidate.
Since becoming the head of Space Command in August 2014, the Harvard ROTC graduate has sought ways to better protect the Air Force’s space and cyber assets against battle damage.
“It’s not about the single satellite,” Hyten said. “It’s about the force package that you build around that satellite to defend the satellite.” Such defenses might have components in other warfighting domains.
“If war, God forbid, does extend into space some day…the first response could be in cyberspace, or in the air, or terrestrial. It could be in a number of different places,” he said.
CONTINUE READING: www.defenseone.com/management/2016/04/air-force-general-space-war-chief/127437/
The Air Force’s Next Chief Might Be Its Space-War General
April 13, 2016
By Marcus Weisgerber / www.defenseone.com/voices/marcus-weisgerber/9566/
Gen. John Hyten has never flown a warplane, but he plays a role in just about every Air Force mission.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Gen. John Hyten’s office is 7,000 miles from the battlefields of Iraq and Syria, but the men and women he commands help guide just about every bomb dropped on an Islamic State target. Still, it’s another theater entirely that worries the head of Air Force Space Command — and top Pentagon leaders.
“The growing vulnerability of our space assets is both a strategic and operational problem,” Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work said Tuesday at the National Space Symposium, an annual conference sponsored by the Space Foundation. “Strategically, space system vulnerability contributes to crisis instability because it provides incentives for preemption of our space assets.”
From Peterson Air Force Base near the foot of the Rocky Mountains, Hyten oversees the 38,000 airmen who operate their service’s diverse constellation of spy, communications, and global positioning satellites that support and enable military operations around the world. He also oversees the Air Force’s cyber forces.
Now Hyten is being considered for another job: Air Force chief of staff. Should that happen, he would be the first non-pilot to lead the service since it was created in 1947. His selection would underscore that Pentagon leaders expect future wars to be fought not just terrestrially, but in space and online.
Hyten’s remarks here at the National Space Symposium could well be his last public comments before President Obama nominates a replacement for Gen. Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of staff who is retiring on July 1. Pentagon sources say Hyten is a leading candidate.
Since becoming the head of Space Command in August 2014, the Harvard ROTC graduate has sought ways to better protect the Air Force’s space and cyber assets against battle damage.
“It’s not about the single satellite,” Hyten said. “It’s about the force package that you build around that satellite to defend the satellite.” Such defenses might have components in other warfighting domains.
“If war, God forbid, does extend into space some day…the first response could be in cyberspace, or in the air, or terrestrial. It could be in a number of different places,” he said.
CONTINUE READING: www.defenseone.com/management/2016/04/air-force-general-space-war-chief/127437/