In a recent article in National Defense Magazine about the U.S. Air Force’s challenges of efficiently developing and deploying space technology, ASP Director of Strategy and Communications Paul W. Hamill urged the military to rethink its decades old business model.
We have a system right now where we have big, one-off, specialized satellites that need huge rockets and engines to get them up there… We need to move away from that model.
Let’s get smaller stuff up that can do bits of everything because let’s face it, if we have a state actor or non-state actor shoot one of these down, it’s not easily replaceable. If you shoot three down, we’re in serious trouble.
The military side of space issues and launch capabilities are stuck in the early 1990s. We’ve actually got private companies out there who can do this. Industry and the private sector have moved on. It’s the public sector who haven’t.