The idea of offensive space capabilities is “a little bit of a misnomer,” said Gen. John Hyten, head of Air Force Space Command, on Tuesday. “If the United States is attacked, wherever we’re attacked, whether it’s by radical terrorists in Iraq or Syria, whether it’s in Afghanistan, or whether it’s in space, it’s the United States of America that responds, it’s not just Space Command,” his said in his address at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in National Harbor, Md. “So if we’re attacked some day, it won’t be just the space guys that have to figure out how to respond to that attack, it’ll be the United States of America, and … we have all kinds of means to bring to bear against the problem,” he said. Similarly, the United States has “the capability to respond across the board” if attacked in the cyber realm, said Hyten. The cyber threat to ground forces is significant, he said, citing GPS as an example. “GPS is hooked into so many civilian capabilities, and those civilian capabilities are plugged in across our network,” he said.
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.