: Mark Lewis, former Air Force chief scientist who appeared at the hypersonics seminar with Hallion June 30 (see Hypersonic Breakthrough Coming Soon above), agreed with Hallion’s timeline for the fielding of a hypersonic missile. Lewis said hypersonic missiles—or aircraft, for that matter—would be well-suited to theater operations of less than 700 miles, but “don’t make much sense” for globe-spanning missions. The effective range limitation is a by-product of the fact that hypersonic weapons would likely consume vast quantities of fuel at such high speed.
Lt. Gen. Stephen L. Davis, the Department of the Air Force’s top internal watchdog, has been nominated to lead Air Force Global Strike Command, which oversees the service’s bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles.