FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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Mike Griffin Will Make Hypersonic Technology a Pentagon Priority

March 7, 2018 (EIRNS)—Less than two weeks ago, former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin became Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering—a new position created at the Pentagon by Congress—in which he will have a mandate to make whatever changes he deems necessary, to “break a lot of china,” and get the defense establishment vectored toward developing “game changing” technology. He says he has the full backing of the Pentagon, and will be given a lot of leeway.

In a speech yesterday at the McAleese & Associates and Credit Suisse defense program conference in Washington, he singled out China, as being ahead of the U.S., specifically in the development of hypersonic systems. Griffin said that developing and fielding hypersonic systems would be a priority for the Pentagon. “China can hold our carrier battle groups and deployed forces at risk,” he said. Currently, “our only response is to let them have their way or go nuclear. That should not be an acceptable situation for the United States.”

Griffin was NASA Administrator under Bush Jr., and pushed hard for progress on Constellation, and against the Office of Budget and Management and Congressional budget balancers who did not want to fund the program. In 1986 he was deputy for technology in the Strategic Defense Initiative Office. He has been in private industry, and conducted laboratory research.