Pentagon's top engineer blames Russia, China for militarizing space as Space Force takes shape

CNBC ^ | 14 hours ago

[cba123]

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The Pentagon's top engineer criticized Russia and China this week for militarizing space, a move the Trump administration wants to address with the formation of a sixth service branch dubbed Space Force. His remarks came a day before Vice President Mike Pence laid out President Donald Trump's vision for creating the Space Force by 2020. "We are not the people who choose to weaponize space, but if we are challenged we will respond," Dr. Michael Griffin said Wednesday at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Ala. "The Defense Department is today working on a means to defend our existing capabilities and we will be working on methods to project our national power ...

[Pelham]

Whichever way works to make sure that good CAS planes like the Warthog don’t get scrapped or not designed and built due to USAF indifference.

Army already has to support their fleet of “rotary aircraft”. Dunno if adding CAS fixed wing would be a major problem. Maybe.

[PapaBear3625]

For CAS mission, the Army relies on helicopters. Armed tiltrotors like the V-280 will give the Army fixed-wing capabilities.

[Pelham]

Either by law or inter-service agreement the Army is restricted to helicopters and the USAF makes sure that it is strictly enforced. Otherwise the Army could be in the business of Warthog style fixed wing CAS aircraft.

There is no good reason for giving the USAF veto power over something so vital to small ground units as CAS aircraft. Marines don’t have this problem because they still have their own air arm.