All commanders want more capability than they they’ll need, Schwartz said, and “in a perfect world,” he’d buy both more C-17s and a new aerial tanker, one that can double as a freighter, like the KC-10. However, if he is forced to choose between them, his choice would be the tanker/cargo combo. He waved off characterizing what the airplane should be but said he’s convinced there’s no “economic business case to fix the KC-135E” with any kind of an upgrade. A new aircraft is needed, and the program should get going “Without delay. Right now. Get on with it.”
Special-ops aviators, a physicist from the intelligence community, and an enlisted Marine with decades of deployments: U.S. Space Command’s military and civilian leaders who spoke May 7 were as likely to come from strictly space backgrounds as not. These are some of the day’s insights from inside the command, which…