From: utzoo!decvax!cca!WMARTIN@OFFICE-8@sri-unix Newsgroups: net.space Title: Space in the News Article-I.D.: sri-unix.2496 Posted: Fri Aug 6 08:00:59 1982 Received: Sun Aug 8 08:17:45 1982 From: WMartin at Office-8 (Will Martin) >From the July 19, '82 issue of Electronic Engineering Times, p. 37: PENTAGON CREATES USAF SPACE COMMAND (extracts) The Department of Defense has created the US Air Force Space Command in response to the increasing use of space for military purposes. The new command, to be operational Septemeber 1, will be part of the Air Force. The Space Command was established ... to counter advances in Soviet space systems and strategic weapons via a single operational command that can carry out US military space policy. The Pentagon's move follows a long debate with Congress over whether to rename the US Air Force the US Aerospace Force. Congress wanted to change the name to sharpen DoD's focus for space activities, which it felt were lagging behind the Soviet military effort in space. ... Creation of the Space Command is viewed as the first step toward establishing a unified command involving all other branches of the military. This, according to Pentagon sources, is an issue presently being hotly contested among the various branches of the service. The headquarters for the new part of the Air Force will be located with the Aerospace Defense Command at Colorado Springs, CO. Commander of the Space Command will be Lt. Gen. James V. Hartinger, presently commander-in-chief of NORAD as well as head of the Aerospace Defense Command. ... "The purpose of the new command is to provide a focus initially for operational planning, coordination and consolidation of activities relating to space-mission areas." ... The operational and development portions of the Defense Dept. have often been too far apart, with the users of the systems not communicating fully with the developers. More emphasis will be given ... to incorporating operational concepts into space-system developments -- systems previously thought to contain one-of-a-kind characteristics. Standardization is also a goal of the Space Command. The desire to standardize space military systems is a strong one within DoD, and one which helped to get the Space Command approved. [Latter portion extracted from comments by retiring USAF chief of staff General Lew Allen, Jr.]