Missile defense is moving toward a more global, integrated system to counter ballistic missiles as well as cruise missiles, said Army Lt. Gen. Richard Formica, head of Army Space and Missile Defense Command and US Strategic Command’s Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense. During a June 4 address on Capitol Hill, Formica said he sees an evolution to operating a “combined architecture.” In fact, “our ballistic missile defense assessment in Fiscal 2013 is evolving to an integrated air and missile defense assessment,” he noted. Formica also said adversaries are not “going to be particular” about the geographic boundaries of the US combatant commands, so it is increasingly crucial that missile defenses are able to function smoothly across those areas of responsibility. “We remain confident in our ability to protect the nation against a limited ballistic missile … attack, even in the face of changes in strategic environment, and even in this current fiscal circumstance,” said Formica. “But it ain’t easy. . . . It requires sustained effort. After all, it is rocket science,” he said. AFA, the National Defense Industrial Association, and Reserve Officers Association sponsored Formica’s talk.
The long-standing method for communicating data down from space via radio frequencies has the potential to create deadly data bottlenecks that could slow and stymie future operations, according to a new report from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The report makes the case for combining RF with optical communications…