General John Hyten, commander of Air Force Space Command, announced the command's Space Enterprise Vision last week. The SEV is the result of an AFSPC-commissioned study that looked at how to make the nation's national security space enterprise more resilient.
The August 2015 SEV study addressed the findings of several previous studies that identified the U.S. space enterprise is not resilient enough to be successful in a conflict that extends to space. The SEV also recognizes that acquisition and programmatic decisions can no longer occur in mission area stovepipes, but must instead be driven by an overarching space mission enterprise context.
"In the recent past, the United States enjoyed unchallenged freedom of action in the space domain," said General Hyten.
"Most U.S. military space systems were not designed with threats in mind, and were built for long-term functionality and efficiency, with systems operating for decades in some cases. Without the need to factor in threats, longevity and cost were the critical factors to design and these factors were applied in a mission stovepipe. This is no longer an adequate methodology to equip space forces." more
