Maj. Gen. Burke Wilson assumed command of 24th Air Force at JBSA-Lackland, Texas, during a change-of-command ceremony held last week. Wilson, who previously served as director of space operations in Washington, D.C., replaced Maj. Gen. James McLaughlin, who led the numbered air force since June 2013, according to a release. McLaughlin was promoted to lieutenant general and has been tapped for reassignment as deputy commander of US Cyber Command at Fort Meade, Md. “I look forward to continuing the work Maj. Gen. McLaughlin started by focusing on mission, people, and partnerships,” said Wilson during the ceremony. The 24th Air Force is the Air Force’s cyber unit and its mission is to “operate, extend, and defend the Air Force Information Network, defend key mission systems, and provide full-spectrum cyberspace capabilities … in, through, and from cyberspace,” states the release.
The White House announced its United States Space Priorities Framework in a document released concurrently with Vice President Kamala Harris' first National Space Council meeting. Listed among five U.S. priorities is to “defend its national security interests from the growing scope and scale of space and counterspace threats.”