A wise man once said: "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." The U.S. Air Force Space Command and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) are working in a terrestrial vacuum. A real consolidation of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) and NRO is long overdue. Problems such as the ongoing Space-Based Infrared Satellite (SBIRS) system disaster, which is three times over budget and six years delayed, and the NROL-21, DSP19 and DSP23 failures, as well as numerous program cancellations (i.e., M3P, Future Imagery Architecture, Space Radar) point out the obvious need for new leadership now and a new national C4ISR (command, control, computers, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) space strategy with accountable metrics. Two recent major congressional reports - the Allard Report and the Ruppersberger Report -have outlined appropriate remedial actions to rectify the current rudderless and unacceptable C4ISR program performances.
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