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U.S. falling behind in new space race, ex-CIA chief says

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U.S. falling behind in new space race, ex-CIA chief says

The U.S. may have lost most of its competitive advantage in the development of its capabilities in space, compared to Russia and China – and it may struggle to catch up to competitors, according to Glenn Gaffney, the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Science and Technology Directorate.

“I think one of the big challenges that we have today is a number of our capabilities in the space arena have atrophied over the years,” said Gaffney, a 30-year veteran of the agency who now serves as Executive Vice President of the not-for-profit, strategic intelligence investment group, In-Q-Tel.

“China and Russia have continued to build and to invest in their capabilities in this area as well as other areas,” he said. “And in many ways, the U.S. has some catch-up to do.”

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In an interview with Intelligence Matters host and CBS News senior national security contributor Michael Morell, Gaffney said the overall network of U.S. capabilities in space – including its communications and observations systems and other infrastructure vital to the country’s intelligence community – “need to be paid attention to.”

Gaffney said a decades-long reduction in spending – starting with a natural drawback after the fall of the Berlin Wall – was a root cause of the nation’s existing shortcomings. “Choices had to be made,” he said. “And a number of those choices came at reducing our level of spending on the space program,” including its intelligence components, which Gaffney said had offered a unique and essential means of seeing over the Iron Curtain that divided Europe during the Cold War.

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