Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) Chairs Senate Subcommittee Hearing on Strategic Forces About Military Space Programs

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) chaired a Senate Committee on Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces hearing on military space programs in review of the Defense Authorization Request for fiscal year 2009 and the Future Years Defense Program this afternoon.

Topics discussed at the hearing ranged from delays in the release of expensive U.S. defense technology in both space and at sea as well as Chinese and Russian space plans and their possible threats to the United States. The group panel members interrogated was diverse; they included leaders in the U.S. Air Force Space Command Program, Navy and even the Government Accountability Office.

Each panel member questioned offered a different perspective on the direction of U.S. defense policy. General C. Robert Kehler, Commander of the Air Force Space Command, talked about the “decisive advantage” that space power gives the United States and how it has shaped the “American way of warfare.”