On 13 June 2018,US Air Force General John E. Hyten,Commander,US Strategic Command,gave the annual John Glenn Lecture at the Smithsonian Air&Space Museum in Washington.Speaking in generalities to protect classified information,GEN Hyten noted that only 13% of Americans thought that sending US astronauts back to the Moon was a top priority,and only 18% considered sending a crewed mission to Mars a top priority,according to the latest Pew Research poll.This shows a disappointing lack of enthusiasm for space exploration.We need to return to dreaming,GEN Hyten said,to emphasise how important the STEM disciplines are,and to make sure we protect space so these dreams are always possible.Today,STEM is mainstream.Six percent of all workers are in STEM fields,and they earn 12% more than other workers.The cool kids are becoming the geeks.STRATCOM shuts down without a flow of these cool people.*
GEN Hyten,who has 162,000 service members under his command,said that they have two imperatives:
1.To operate within space to defend our nation;and
2.We have to defend space so our children can use it.
Basic research is where the next great idea is going to come from.For decades,it was thought the enemy could only hurt us through massive damage.That's no longer the case.Now they can hurt us in space and even cyberspace.Our adversaries get a vote.This is not the world I wish there was;this is the world that is,and the world that is has threats to our space capabilities;and because it has threats to our space capabilities,we have to be willing to do something about it.
When we have adversaries such as Russia and China that openly declare 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 actually 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 own choosing.That's what our current national security strategy says.We're going to put a priority on building new capabilities to defend ourselves.Space superiority is not our birthright;Russia and China are building weapons that are going to challenge us.*
This is an exciting time to be in the space business.If you think about what's going on in SpaceX;in Blue Origen;in NASA;in the Air Force;in small companies.I've never seen a time like this;but now we have to take the steps forward;we have to push back;we have to support NASA in their desire to move back out into space with humans.Our nation's leadership is aligned like I've never seen before.From the White House,to Congress,to NASA,the Pentagon-across the Government,it's a great thing to see;but we have to take advantage of it.Now is the time.The big dreams and innovation of the sixties and seventies were only the beginning,and we're taking steps that will ensure that the benefits of space will be protected for future generations.With dreams,we can make our own history.*
STRATCOM deals with space in large part through one of its component commands,US Air Force Space Command,headquartered at Peterson AFB,Colorado.*
The Air Force's highly classified Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle is often suspected to be an integral part of space warfighting research and development.
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