SMC chief urges space S&T investment

The commander of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center said today the service needs to do a better job of investing science and technology funding in space programs.

“I'll stop short of saying that I demand from the [Air Force Research Laboratory] commander that space gets its fair share,” Lt. Gen. John Thompson said during a Nov. 3 Air Force Association breakfast. “I think there are areas where space and a couple other domains . . . should be more demanding customers with our Air Force's S&T enterprise to get what we feel would be operationally relevant in our portfolios.”

Thompson would not elaborate on which programs he would funnel additional S&T funding toward, saying “most of them are a little more classified than I'd be comfortable talking about here with this audience.”

AFRL is leading a yearlong S&T review, directed by service Secretary Heather Wilson. That review is meant to drive near-term investment in future game-changing technologies and could impact the fiscal year 2019 budget request.