When wars end, weapons programs get cut. Sometimes the cuts are straightforward, and sometimes they are more subtle. The Clinton Administration’s approach to national-security space programs — both military and spy satellites — fell into the latter category. Even though it funded a series of next-generation spacecraft to replace Cold War satellites, the administration made so many bad calls that in the end the Pentagon’s space efforts nearly collapsed. Several constellations eventually were canceled and others were delivered years late, creating crises in missile warning, imagery collection and GPS signal generation. I have written a commentary for Forbes on what went wrong that you can read here, and additional details may be found in a speech I gave to the Space Enterprise Council this week linked at the top of the Lexington homepage.
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