Washington, DC Nov. 15, 1997 – The head of both Air Force and U.S. Space Command claimed outer space as the "domain" of the Air Force Friday, but said rhetoric must now give way to specific plans and new programmatic approaches to make such claims a reality.
Air Force Gen. Howell M. Estes III told the Air Force Association space
seminar in Los Angeles, Calif. the potential of space for warfighters would
never be realized unless his service underwent a painful "cultural change"
in which space flight operations gained as much importance to the rank and
file as aeronautics and aviation. "In time of limited budgets, we don't
have the money to continue with business as usual," Estes said.
A new balance was needed within the Air Force between "shooters" and
purveyors of information systems -mainly routed through spacecraft – Estes
warned, adding that it was senior management's job in the year ahead to
"find more ways to effectively use space" for "apidly expanding information
systems". Under his leadership, the Air Force has beefed up space experts
to its Pentagon staff in recent months, as well as accelerated such
military space programs as expendable launch vehicles and early warning
follow-on satellites. But he warned that the service was in danger of
experiencing "lost ground" in other areas, such as space launch site
modernization and leveraging of commercial and civil space technology for
the military's needs.
In 1996 and 97, Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall and Chief of Staff Gen.
Ronald Fogleman approved a long range policy of shifting the Air Force from
a "Air and Space Force" to a "Space and Air Force", a process that could
take decades. Once in place, however, space policy planners say the
military will need outposts in space, advanced sensors and satellite
platforms, and winged spaceplanes that would patrol the orbital heights as
in decades-old science fiction movies. In space, life is about to imitate
art, planners predict.
