Dear Readers and Listeners,
On Friday night, as Elon Musk waved around a chainsaw on the main stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md., across the Potomac River, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, on President Donald Trump’s “tweeted” orders, removed generals, an admiral, and the judge advocate generals of three service branches.
The heads that rolled included Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force General Charles “CQ” Brown; the first woman Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti; Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James “Jim” Slife; Army Judge Advocate General, Lt. Gen. Joseph Berger III; Air Force Judge Advocate General, Lt. Gen. Charles Plummer; and Navy Judge Advocate General, Rear Adm. Lia Reynolds.
Some attempting to equate these removals as business as usual or similar to how then President Barak Obama fired Army Gen. David McKiernan, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, and soon after his replacement Army Gen. Stan McChrystal, are incorrect at best and willfully misleading at worst. I was there. McKiernan’s and McChrystal’s removals were definitely controversial, but they were for cause.
Friday’s sackings are a whole different thing. True, these flag officers serve at the pleasure of the president, but no cause was given.
It is strongly believed that among Brown’s unconfirmed offenses are an August 2022 memo directing recruiters to produce an outreach plan to engage underrepresented communities and the below videos: one an Air Force recruitment advertisement; the other a message in the wake of the George Floyd murder to the men and women who served under him. The 2022 memo was revoked in a January 27 memo authored by Acting Secretary of the Air Force Gary Ashworth.
It is much less clear why Franchetti, Slife, and the JAGS were relieved, but the New York Times’s Greg Jaffe offers an interesting theory that is connected to Hegseth’s book “The War on Warriors,” which criticizes commanders and JAGs.
Eric Edleman, a former diplomat and under secretary of defense for policy, had this to say on PBS:
“Well, you know, during the campaign in 2016, President Trump said that he might order the military torture people who are captured, terrorists captured on the battlefield. That is a war crime. That is illegal under U.S. statutes, and it would be an unlawful order. And if there are no JAGs to impose that interpretation and make it clear that is not lawful, the president might be able to force military officers into doing things that they know are not correct, not right.”
On the day those flag officers and JAGs were removed, Theresa Hitchens of Breaking Defense reported on an email that observers I have spoken with feel is linked to Hegseth’s drive to “revive the warrior ethos.” Allegedly Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance “Satly” Saltzman directed Space Force Director of Staff Maj. Gen. Steven Whitney to send a mass-blast email prohibiting, at least temporarily, Guardian participation in Mitchell Institute events.
As reported by Hitchens the email states:
“CSO has directed that all Guardian participation with the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies is stopped until further notice. Instructions will follow when he clears future participation. This does not affect participation at the AFA’s Warfare Symposium, only Mitchell Institute sponsored events.”
Just a couple of days prior I had the pleasure of attending, virtually, the launch of a Mitchell Institute report, that was a product of a two-day workshop, which Guardians participated along with other subject matter experts, “to evaluate the Space Force’s theory of Competitive Endurance.”
The Mitchell Institute is a think tank housed inside of a the Air & Space Forces Association, a powerful Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization dedicated to supporting the Air Force and the Space Force. The institute’s namesake is Brig. Gen. William “Billy” Mitchell, a beloved officer and outspoken proponent of air power, who was court-martialed for insubordination in 1925.
The Mitchell Institute report, which is listed below, had a number of “key points” that were deeply explored by the workshop’s participants. The second key point and the number one near-term recommended action focused on the CSO’s “Theory of Competitive Endurance”.
The workshop participants correctly found that the theory did not contain the words “victory”, “win” or “winning.” As documented in the report, the participants relayed that, “Adopting a space framework based on the Space Force’s Theory of Competitive Endurance provides a stable way forward. However, prioritizing endurance over victory may undermine a warfighting mentality and the core of the Guardian identity.”
It was the CSO, who said in March 2023: “I intend Competitive Endurance to be a starting point for a dialogue I believe is critical—absolutely critical—to the success of our young service.”
That dialogue may be difficult to sustain in light of these words Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday: “I have also directed Secretary Hegseth to solicit nominations for five additional high level positions, which will be announced soon.“
What’s in this episode
Mass firings or the threat of them hang over national space-related agencies and are expected to expand to the Department of Defense, while a report outlining just how to develop and deploy President Donald Trump’s mostly space-based missile shield is being drafted. Critical questions about policy, funding, and who in the DoD will ultimately be responsible for this grand program remain unanswered.
Who’s in this episode
Doug Loverro - President, Loverro Consulting, LLC, former NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense for Space Policy
Todd Harrison - Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, and much respected NASA and Defense Department budget diviner.
Reading
“How Much Would a Space-Based Missile Interceptor System Cost and Does It Make Sense?” - Todd Harrison, AEIdeas, January 29, 2025
“Trump Wants The Next Generation Of Military Satellites. Pentagon Turmoil Is Endangering That” - Jeremy Bogaisky, Forbes, February 20, 2025
“Ensuring a Spacepower Advantage in Prolonged Competition: Findings and Recommendations from the Space Endurance Workshop” - Col Charles Galbreath, USSF (Ret.), and Col Jennifer Reeves, USAF (Ret.), Mitchell Institute, February 19, 2025
“Trump administration orders Pentagon to plan for sweeping budget cuts” - This is the original story on the 8% budget cuts in each of the next five years by Dan Lamothe, Alex Horton, and Hannah Natanson, Washington Post, February 19, 2025
“A Question of Loyalty: Gen. Billy Mitchell and the Court-Martial That Gripped the Nation” - Douglas Waller, HarperCollins, September 1, 2004
“Defense Secretary Orders Air Force to Pause All Reorg Planning” - Greg Hadley, Air & Space Forces Magazine, February 10, 2025 (Space Force Futures Command put on hold)
“Hegseth’s proposed Pentagon cuts, firing of generals: What to know” - Filip Timotija, The Hill, February 20, 2025
“Pentagon announces it plans to fire 5-8% of civilian workforce” - Natasha Bertrand and Haley Britzky, CNN, February 21, 2025 (Includes reporting on how the DoD will carry out an analysis to not affect mission readiness or fall foul of the law.)
“NOAA set to slash jobs ‘imminently’” - Zack Budryk, The Hill, February 21, 2025
“NASA strikes deal over layoffs of recent hires” - Jackie Wattles, CNN, February 20, 2025
“House Committee Plans Artemis Hearing Next Week” - Marcia Smith, SpacePolicyOnline.com, February 19, 2025
“Elon Musk recommends that the International Space Station be deorbited ASAP” - Eric Berger, Ars Technica, February 20, 2025… BUT…
I recommend listening to the “Space Tech: Holes Bubble Up In NASA’s Narrative On And Plan To De-Orbit The Space Station” episode to see why Musk may be wrong in his assessment.
“‘City Killer’ Asteroid’s Earth Impact Risk Rises to Highest Ever Recorded” - Lee Billings, Scientific American, February 19, 2025
“SpaceX rocket debris crashes into Poland” - Eve Webster, BBC News, February 19, 2025
Ad Astra!
Laura
