US Air Force General John E. Hyten,Commander,US Strategic Command,gave the annual John Glenn Lecture at the Smithsonian National Air&Space Museum in Washington on 13 June 2018.Through its component commands,particularly US Air Force Space Command,STRATCOM leads the military effort to secure and sustain America's leadership in outer space.
General Hyten noted that:
When we have adversaries such as Russia and China that openly declare in their doctrine that they are going to build weapons to take away our space capabilities,we have to do something about it.So we're going to change.We're going to change the way we look at space.We're going to look at space,and we're going to define our future,and we're going to treat space as if it's a warfighting environment.There's no such thing as war in space;there's just war.
We have adversaries that are building weapons to take away our use of space,so we have to do something to prevent them from doing that.So we're going to build different systems;and different ways of doing business;and we're going to build operators that think about space as a warfighting domain;so that every adversary that looks at us will not try to contest us in that area,because,if they do,they'll realise that they'll lose.And that will prevent war from extending into space.We're taking measures so that any attack on our space architecture will be met in a manner,time and place of our choosing.That's what our current national security strategy says.We going to put a priority on building new capabilities to defend ourselves.Space superiority is not our birthright.Russia and China are both building weapons that are going to challenge us.*
This place pales in comparison to what we can actually do if we move out into space again.STRATCOM has kept the old Strategic Air Command's motto:"Peace is our profession.."There are two dots at the end of it.We do want peace;but we are ready if you cross the line.Because if you are ready,I do not think that they will ever cross that line.*
We have an amazing partnership with NASA.Both former director Charlie Bolden and new director Jim Bridenstine understand there's a critical role that we have to play,and we have to partner.How do we do that? If we don't treat space as a warfighting domain,war will move into space,and we won't be able to deal with it.The great news is that everybody's aligned on what we have to do to prevent that.That's the good news.I'm not going to tell you in this room exactly what we're doing,because that would kind of defeat the purpose;but just walk around this museum and you'll see all the things we're going to do,because it is the same problem we faced in the air a century ago,and now we have to figure out how to defend ourselves without creating debris.
You can't defend if everything's in the black;and we haven't decided as a nation.My job is to give input to that;but that will be a political decision for the President and Congress to together decide what is that going to be;and that will eventually show up in the budget,and the people will see it and talk about it,and then we'll go down that path.In all domains that we operate in,we will provide a strategic deterrent;and it starts with a nuclear capability,but it also involves space,and so we have to decide how we're going to deter in space,and that's why it's an important topic for conversation.*
Analysis:It's often conjectured that perhaps a lot of what we're planning in space warfighting is being tested on the Air Force's top secret space plane,the Boeing X-37B,which is a very long-duration flyer,staying up in space for years at a time.*
Boeing (BA)
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