The Hypersonics Weapons Fight
This transcript is made possible through the sponsorship of Schneider Electric
Dr. Mark Lewis:
Well, good afternoon everyone. I'm Mark Lewis. I'm the President and CEO of the Purdue Applied
Research Institute, a former Air Force Chief Scientist, the former Director of Defense Research and
Engineering and it is my absolute privilege and honor to welcome you to this afternoon's discussion
about the hypersonic weapons fight.
If I can scene set. We've been hearing a lot at this symposium so far about exciting new plans
modernizing our air and space forces, and I would submit to you that technology is a key element of
those, and among those technologies is certainly hypersonic flight. Now, I assume most of you know
what hypersonics is, but for the uninitiated, it refers to flight in excess of about five times the speed of
sound. But in modern parlance it's much more than that. It's the combination of speed with
maneuverability and trajectories that produce capabilities that increase survivability, but also, again, get
inside an opponent's decision loop.
And joining me here today to consider the implications of hypersonics, not only from a deployment
standpoint, but how we would respond and various policy issues are two incredible, incredible Air Force
leaders. To my immediate right is Major General Scott Cain, who is the Commander of the Air Force
Research Laboratory part of the Air Force Material Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. And as
an aside, he has what I believe is the second most fun job in the entire United States Air Force. You can
ask me later what the first most enjoyable job is in the Air Force.
In that role, General Cain leads a three-billion-dollar enterprise in science technology innovation that
accelerates discovery development of solutions for Airmen and Guardians. He's responsible for
formulating a comprehensive portfolio that anticipates future warfighter needs, promotes risk-taking
and problem-solving across a six-thousand-member government workforce.
Also, joining us on this panel is Brigadier General Derek Maestro O'Malley, who is the Deputy Director of
Operations Headquarters North American Aerospace Defense Command at Peterson Space Force Base
in Colorado, right nearby. As the Deputy Director, General O'Malley leads the future concepts Division
for the Execution of Aerospace warning, Aerospace Control, and Maritime warning for North America.
That includes Canadian, Alaskan and continental United States, North American Aerospace Defense
Command regions within the Binational Command.
So gentlemen, first thank you both for joining us for what I know is going to be an exciting and
interesting and stimulating discussion. Let me start off by asking each of our participants to say a few
opening remarks and then we will go into what I expect will be a very robust but informal discussion in
the realm of hypersonic weapons. So General Cain, would you like to start?
Maj. Gen. Scott A. Cain:
Yeah, thanks Dr. Lewis and good afternoon everyone. And I will be asking Dr. Lewis immediately after
this what that first job is, because I don't believe it. I guarantee I have the best job in the Air Force,
hands down. I am going to start by giving you a little bit of my perspective, and when I say that, not
views on hypersonics immediately, but I come from an operational background both as an operational
pilot and as a tester. I lay that out upfront because I'm going to talk about some things today and I'll
make some comments about the operational relevance and about the pull for hypersonics from our
operational community. And I'm not just saying that from the vantage point of a S&T leader, I'm saying
