Boosting the nation’s warfighting capabilities in space to support the National Defense Strategy is setting the U.S. and its strategic partners up to be more innovative, Gen. John Raymond, commander of both the U.S. Space Command and Air Force Space Command, said Monday.
“I think is a great thing for our nation that there’s this excitement about this domain, which I think is going to pay huge dividends for our country going forward,” Raymond said in remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, according to a transcript and video.
Raymond told CSIS’ Todd Harrison that he’s hopeful the National Defense Authorization Act – still stuck in negotiations on Capitol Hill – will prop up a full Space Force and that people are “knocking on our door” to get involved in the military’s space efforts.
“Two years ago, out of a thousand cadets that graduated from the Air Force Academy, only 13 came to space – out of a thousand. This last year, there was 35. Now they’ve stood up a space ops major, and there’s more coming.”
Raymond declined to say where the U.S. Space Command will set up its headquarters or when the search process will be finished.
Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Armando Schwier-Morales