The Air Force’s top information officer said Tuesday protecting the aerial network is one of his top priorities this year. That’s a daunting challenge since the network is hosted on aircraft that are moving exceedingly fast “We think we know how the terrestrial layer works. We think we know how the space layer works, but what happens when you effectively put routers on devices that are traveling Mach 3, or, in a missile, Mach 6?” said Lt. Gen. Bill Lord, USAF’s chief of warfighting integration, to reporters in the Pentagon. Another priority is figuring out the network that will broadcast F-35 intelligence feeds in US-controlled airspace and what types of waveforms are available, he added.
Air Force Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost—a trailblazer and one of the first 10 women to reach a four-star rank across the U.S. military—retired and passed control of U.S. Transportation Command to Air Force Gen. Randall Reed on Oct. 4, finishing an eventful tenure at TRANSCOM.