As Space War Looms, Air Force’s Biggest Weakness May Be How It Buys Satellites (From Forbes)

Air Force leaders are expressing grave concern about recent Russian and Chinese initiatives aimed at negating America’s national-security space capabilities.  The satellite constellations on which the U.S. currently depends for communications, recon and warning of attack are not equipped to deal with space as a contested environment, and changes will need to be made.  Unfortunately, the plodding way in which the Air Force buys satellites is ill-suited to restoring America’s edge in space because it can’t keep up with moves by our nation’s overseas rivals. The time needed to develop and launch new spacecraft needs to be greatly compressed.  I have written a commentary for Forbes here.